The Growing Circles of Love

As my first grandchild got married recently, I began to contemplate the different kinds of love in my life. I gave an AI program a bunch of information about what I was thinking and feeling and it smoothed over what I was trying to say in a beautiful way. I hope you can take a moment to appreciate all the different kinds of love God has showered into our life.

There are moments in life when I stop and look around at my family, and I am overwhelmed by how much love God has allowed me to experience.

I think back to the beginning of my own marriage and remember a love that felt complete. Two young people choosing each other, building a life together, learning how to laugh, forgive, sacrifice, dream, and grow. We didn’t know then all the ways our love would change and deepen over the years. (but in our wedding sermon, the pastor warned us ‘If you think you love each other now…just wait!) We only knew that we loved each other and wanted to walk through life together.

But through the years, marriage taught me something beautiful: love doesn’t stay the same—it grows.

First came our children. When you hold your child for the first time, your heart discovers a whole new kind of love. It’s different from the love between husband and wife, but somehow it grows from it. Your heart stretches to make room for another person, and then another.

You love your children fiercely. You protect them, teach them, worry about them, celebrate them, and pray for them. But children are not meant to stay little. They grow. They leave the nest. They fall in love. And then one day, you watch your child stand beside the person they have chosen and make vows of their own.

At first, it’s a strange mixture of emotions. You realize that your child is no longer simply your little boy or girl. They are someone’s husband or wife. They are building a home, making memories, and creating a family of their own. And you discover that love has another way of growing.

You learn to love the person your child chose. You watch their marriage develop through its own seasons—the laughter, the challenges, the compromises, the dreams, and the everyday moments that make a life together.

And as a parent, you realize that one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is the freedom to build their own lives while continuing to love and pray for them from a different place.

Then come the grandchildren. Oh, the grandchildren. There is something almost impossible to explain about becoming a grandparent. Your heart seems to recognize a love it didn’t even know it had room for.

You look into those little faces and see pieces of your children, pieces of the person you married, and perhaps even pieces of yourself. You see another generation carrying the story of love forward.

And now, I find myself thinking about the marriages of my grandchildren. (the first of 5 got married last weekend) What an incredible thing it is to watch love continue through generations. The little child(ren) who once sat on our laps stands beside someone they love and make promises of their own. They will begin building homes, families, traditions, and memories.

And I realize that love isn’t a single circle. It is a growing circle.

My marriage was one beginning. (Actually, there were many ‘beginnings’ before mine that are part of an even bigger circle.) Our children’s marriages became another beautiful extension. And our grandchildren’s love and marriages become another. Each generation adds another layer to the story.

But underneath it all—above it all—is a love that is greater than any of ours. The love of Jesus.

Human love is beautiful, but it is imperfect. We sometimes misunderstand each other. We get tired. We make mistakes. We say things we wish we hadn’t said. We have seasons when loving someone takes more faith than feeling.

But Jesus teaches us a different kind of love. A love that is patient and kind. A love that forgives and serves and sacrifices. A love that doesn’t give up easily. A love that reaches beyond ourselves.

When we place Jesus at the center of our marriages and our families, our love becomes part of something much bigger than ourselves. We aren’t simply loving our spouse. We are learning to love as Christ loves us. We aren’t simply raising children. We are nurturing lives that belong to God. We aren’t simply watching grandchildren grow. We are witnessing another generation of God’s story unfold.

And perhaps that is one of the greatest blessings of growing older: realizing that the love we began with doesn’t end with us. It keeps going. It moves from one generation to another. It shows up in wedding vows, family dinners, children’s laughter, grandchildren’s hugs, and quiet prayers spoken when no one else is listening.

Sometimes we get to see the results. Sometimes we simply plant the seeds and trust God with the harvest. But through it all, Jesus remains the foundation. His love is the love that holds us when our own love feels weak.His grace gives us the courage to forgive. His example teaches us how to serve. His presence gives us hope for our families.

And His love reminds us that the greatest legacy we can leave our children and grandchildren isn’t money, possessions, or even memories. It is faith. It is love. It is the knowledge that they are deeply, completely, and eternally loved by Jesus.

So when I look at my marriage, my children’s marriages, and the love that is growing in the next generation, I see more than individual relationships. I see a beautiful tapestry. One thread woven into another. One generation connected to the next. And over every thread, every marriage, every child, every grandchild, and every family story is the steady, everlasting love of Jesus.

Our love grows. Our family grows. The generations change. But His love never does. That is the love that started our story. That is the love that carries us today. And that is the love I pray will carry every generation still to come.

Dawn Lubker, Director of Ministries