The Gift of Love

All the years I was working, I kept the following poem tacked to the bulletin board above my desk.  I don't recall the book I was reading when I stumbled across the poem, nor the source of the quotation, but here it is:

The Gift of Love

And what is it to work with love?

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your own heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

We read in Genesis that on the seventh day, "God rested from the work He had done."  It is clear from observation that God worked with love to construct the universe, even as His very own Son was to dwell therein.  John tells us that everything was made in Him and for Him, and nothing that has been made was made without Him.    The world and all that is in it was made for God's beloved, and that is what we are---His beloved. 

Should we not see everything around us as a work of love?