Love from God

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Love which stems from created things is like a small lamp whose light is sustained by being fed with olive oil.

Again, it is like a river fed by rainfall; once the supply that feeds it fails, the surge of its flow abates.

But love whose cause is God is like a spring welling up from the depths; its flow never abates, for God alone is that spring of love whose supply never fails.

-- St. Isaac the Syriac

I've spent a lot of time over the years listening to the heartache of people who are obsessed with that "love which stems from created things". There is, of course, nothing wrong with such love. It's just that when it is the only source of our happiness, we are setting ourselves up for much misery.