Where is Love?

I was thinking about Where is Love, the song that is prominently featured at the beginning of the musical Oliver. The lyricist really pin points what drives Charles Dickens' story. Oliver is looking for evidence of unconditional love in each relationship and situation he is propelled into by fate or fear or desperation...and each relationship falls woefully short of the love he needs. I think that is also my story.

I've read self-help books and devotionals all my life that told me no relationship can fill the "God shaped void" we have within us...no person can love us completely. I understood that intellectually, but I still looked for and believed I could find perfect love within relationships. The truth was everyone I met, including myself, fell well short of perfection. I became disillusioned. I understood intellectually God's love was unconditional but I did not truly believe God's love could be sufficient. What I hadn't experienced yet was the sufficiency of God's Love...a Love that fills us so completely we no longer need to seek to be loved. By God's grace we learn to Love.