{"id":4410,"date":"2025-02-13T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4410"},"modified":"2025-02-13T08:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:00:18","slug":"love-in-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/love-in-a-bottle\/","title":{"rendered":"Love in a Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Can love come into our lives by means of a bottle?

Craig Sullivan, a lonely man in Scotland searching for his soulmate, certainly hoped so.

Inspired by The Police\u2019s song Message in a Bottle<\/em>, Sullivan sent out over 2,000 message-bearing bottles a few summers ago along local beaches.\u00a0

The good news is that he got a response.\u00a0The bad news is that it was from the Scottish environmental protection agency. Their reply was considerably less romantic than Sullivan might have hoped:\u00a0Please stop littering.\u00a0<\/em>

A few years ago I ran across an ad for a little bottle called Love\u2019s Bouquet.\u00a0Alongside were the words, \u201cNever Be Lonely Again!\u201d\u00a0

Then came this compelling message: \u201cJust a touch or two of this powerful \u2018love-potion-in-a-bottle\u2019 is all you need to captivate a new partner or revive a flagging romance.\u00a0Love\u2019s Bouquet contains a fiercely irresistible chemical formula which DRIVES the opposite sex to you without conscious awareness on their part.\u00a0They can\u2019t help themselves.\u00a0Age or appearance simply doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d\u00a0

There was also this testimony:\u00a0\u201cJennifer from Wisconsin says, \u2018Men who were shy are now genuinely unable to stay away from me.\u2019\u201d

Is this at last the answer to our society\u2019s search for unity, and every church\u2019s quest for richer fellowship? If we put just a few drops of Love\u2019s Bouquet into the communion wine, will all of our petty squabbles finally be replaced by heartfelt affection?

What we learn from Scripture is that real love is not about chemistry.\u00a0And it\u2019s not about feelings.\u00a0

It is not a tidal wave of romantic sentiments that washes us helplessly from one experience and from one partner to another.\u00a0

If there really is a potion that drives other people to our sides, against their conscious awareness, then what is driving them is most certainly not love.

Twenty-three times in the New Testament we are commanded to love each other.\u00a0Can feelings be commanded? They cannot.\u00a0But behaviors can<\/em> be commanded, and attitudes can be deliberately cultivated.\u00a0

In the Bible, love means seeking the good of other people even if we never have warm or positive feelings toward them.\u00a0For many of us, this may be the very word we need to hear concerning certain family members.\u00a0

We don\u2019t love other people because they are attractive or lovable.\u00a0

We love them because God has poured his own love into our hearts, and his call is for us to be in relationship with other people by seeking their highest good, just as God seeks our highest good at every turn.\u00a0

\u201cGreat lovers\u201d aren\u2019t those who \u201ccan\u2019t stay away from each other.\u201d\u00a0They are people who by God\u2019s grace learn to keep a lid on their anger\u2026who are patient longer than they ever thought possible\u2026who get excited about somebody else\u2019s big day\u2026and who refuse to keep records of emotional hurts.

Here\u2019s how Jesus put it to his disciples at the Last Supper:

\u201cI am giving you a fresh command:\u00a0Have a heart for one another out of the resource of my heart for you \u2013 like that, have a heart for one another!\u00a0Here is the way everyone out there will know you have been discipled to me \u2013 the way you have a heart for one another\u201d (John 13:34-35, translation by Dale Bruner).

The best offer of love you\u2019ll receive this Valentine\u2019s Day won\u2019t be dispensed in a bottle or wash up on a beach.\u00a0

It\u2019s the assurance that God\u2019s love for us has no expiration date, and can in fact become the deep well out of which we learn to love each other.

Just the same, it might be wise to steer clear from Wisconsin residents named Jennifer.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Can love come into our lives by means of a bottle? Craig Sullivan, a lonely man in Scotland searching for his soulmate, certainly hoped so. Inspired by The Police\u2019s song Message in a Bottle, Sullivan sent out over 2,000 message-bearing bottles a few summers ago along local beaches.\u00a0 The good news… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-4410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4412,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410\/revisions\/4412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}