Love and Boogers

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I was reading some quotes recently and came across this one:

Love is like a booger. You keep picking at it until you get it, then wonder what to do with it.

I am not sure who the author of the quote was but it got me to thinking.  Not about picking my nose but about the love aspect and how hard it is to understand some times and even hard to know what to do with it.

Think about that first puppy-love moment when you got all twitterpated (see Disney’s Bambi for explanation on that term).  Your belly was full of butterflies and your brain was mush and you weren’t sure how to approach the object of your affection.  That fear was part fear of rejection but I wonder how much of it was to do with not knowing what to do if instead of rejection the feelings were reciprocal.

How about that time for the first-time parents when all of a sudden the bump in the belly becomes a squirmy, crying, poo-making machine?  This baby that was at one point a culmination and celebration of love and life between husband and wife is now here and it is its own person.  Do you remember asking yourself that question, “what do I do now?”

For those of you who proclaim Christianity and have quoted that God is love and that this same God has come to ‘indwell’ you as the personhood of Christ, what do you do with that kind of love? Is that a ‘sticky’ question?  Do you wish you could ‘flick’ it somewhere else?

Maybe we think about it too hard.  You know there was a time in our lives when we didn’t have tough questions like, “what is love?”  Go back to that time before you got your first sweaty palms by looking at boy or girl for the first time like you wanted to kiss them instead of play tag.  Yeah… way back then when love wasn’t a booger.  How would a child answer the question about what love is?

Glad you asked because I found this floating around on Al Gore’s web:

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8
year-olds, “What does love mean?” The answers they got were
broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.
See what you think:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over
and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her
all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”
Rebecca- age 8

“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is
different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”
Billy – age 4

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on
shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”
Karl – age 5

“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of
your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”
Chrissy -age 6

“Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.”
Terri – age 4

“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she
takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”
Danny – age 7

“Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired
of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My
Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss”
Emily – age 8

“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop
opening presents and listen.”
Bobby – age 7

“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with
a friend who you hate.”
Nikka – age 6

“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”
Noelle – age 7

“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are
still friends even after they know each other so well.”
Tommy – age 6

“During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared.
I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and
smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.”
Cindy – age 8

“My mommy loves me more than anybody . You don’t see anyone
else kissing me to sleep at night.”
Clare – age 6

“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”
Elaine-age 5

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still
says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.”
Chris – age 7

“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left
him alone all day.”
Mary Ann – age 4

“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her
old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.”
Lauren – age 4

“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and
little stars come out of you.” (what an imagination)
Karen – age 7

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t
think it’s gross.”
Mark – age 6

“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it.
But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”
Jessica – age 8

Which one of those statements from the mouths of babes most speaks to you today about love?

For me, it was the one that said, “You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”