How to Understand Divine Love

Without All the Baggage

You know that feeling you get when you try to figure out what love is?

The angel on one shoulder says “Love is the most powerful force in the universe”. Meanwhile, the devil on the other shoulder says “Forget about it. It’s a sucker’s game anyway.” And you’re caught in between.

Like most difficult things, understanding love is simple. It’s not easy, but it is simple.

“Love is the desire to do good to others” — Urantia Book, pg 648

The human model of love

There’s many ways to think about love — romantic, platonic, fraternal, maternal — but for now, we’ll split them into just two types: human love and divine love. What’s the difference?

The difference is found in the first thing they try to do.

People are usually motivated by survival needs. Fear plays a big part in this. What do I need to do to survive? We ask ourselves this question in a thousand different ways.

As a result, we’re usually running around trying to get things. We get food, we get money, we get shelter and clothing. And yet, we try to get love too.

Human love seeks to get first. How can I get the attention, the support, the acceptance I need to keep my self-concept intact and functional? It’s all about getting, and giving takes a back seat.

The divine model of love

Divine love is a completely different concept and has a different nature than the human model.

Divine love isn’t encumbered by the master intellectual fraud we know as fear. It understands that spirit and soul are held in safekeeping, no matter what. They reside in an unassailable spiritual citadel, regardless of what passes upon the body.

Even if the worst might come, physical hardship, poverty, emotional abandonment, terrible suffering, or even death, spirit and soul are still safe.

And so, divine love focuses on giving love first. Who can I love? How can I serve them in their time of need? These are the motivating questions of divine love.

The real nature of divine love

Why is divine love oriented this way? If it just serves and gives and supports others, won’t it get exhausted and run out of energy?

No.

Divine love has a higher level of insight into the reality of love. It knows that love, by nature, is a reciprocal phenomenon.

The experience of loving is very much a direct response to the experience of being loved. — The Urantia Book, pg 39

As you are loved by another, inside you there flourishes a response to that love. When someone reaches out to you in the spirit of true friendship, true caring, and support, don’t you naturally want to respond in kind?

Dogs know this (on some level). They are open, outgoing, always happy to greet you. They pour out their enthusiasm on you, just because you’re there. And what do you do? You reciprocate.

Divine love, in action.

Serving, with the full knowledge that love will return to you, and it will fuel more giving.

The takeaway

We all have down times. We all need our love tanks filled. But when we’re grown up, it’s not cool to admit it.

When you’re down, maybe even right now, take a page from our spirit companions — dogs. Find someone and be unendingly happy they exist. Radiate joy and love just because they’re there. See their need, if you can, try to help them in that place, even it’s just listening to their story.

You’ll be astonished at what comes back to you.

The purpose of reality, as we experience it, is relationship. And relationship exists to give people the chance to discover and actualize divine love.

Seek first to serve, in love.

All else will take care of itself, in time.