Love is Like a Box of Chocolates

No, I’m not misquoting Forrest Gump here. I’m reflecting on the celebration of love that is often expressed through cards and flowers and…yes…heaps of chocolates arrayed in valentine boxes that ultimately layer the landfill at the end of every February.

But it’s not necessarily the one-time use, disposability of love that is marketed and exploited every year that I want to focus on – not today anyway. Let’s go back to that box of chocolates.

Any good box of chocolates comes with a road map so that one’s fingers can make their way to the most delectable destinations. Truffles in the middle, caramel nougats along the edges, the chocolate cherry in the corner. My personal favorite is the raspberry cremes, but only if they are smothered in dark chocolate.

But love isn’t a flavor of the month to be savored just once, and then it’s gone. Love comes in a variety of sweetness that can be delivered any day of the year. We can unwrap this delightful treasury in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Love truly is like a box of chocolates. It isn’t simply a rush of hormone-infused adrenaline and feelings. Rather, it comes in a variety of actions that never discontinue once you’ve had the pleasure of sampling them. If true love has been patient with you once, that doesn’t mean you won’t get to savor patience again. True love keeps bringing it again and again. And in that way, maybe love is more like a vending machine with an endless supply of patience, kindness, humility, etc.

Humanly speaking, it is impossible to contain within us an endless supply of love in this way. I may be patient one day but the next, when I am tired or not feeling well or in a hurry, my patience is in sudden short supply. I may be more easily angered than I’d like to be. And I will fail somebody somewhere along the way. That doesn’t make me unloving – it just makes me human.

But there is one who offers you unending varieties of love, and that is Christ, our Lord. Nobody else can perfectly embody 1 Corinthians’ definition of love so unfailingly. Even in your worst moment, He’s got a vending machine of love waiting to dispense its riches out to you. And His love even comes with a road map, found in scripture, so you will always know what you are going to get. You may choose to pass up his indulgent kindness, or His honeycomb of patience and humility. But I hope you will always seek out the satisfying morsel of all –

His ability to keep no record of wrongs.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

How tasty is that? Jesus is waiting and willing to unwrap this most prized delicacy for you, as only He can do. That’s just how wide, how long, how high, how deep, how sweet His love is for you.