Love

One of my favorite parts at Yongdusan Park were all the "love locks."  I don't know if that is really what they are called but to me that is what they are.  Yongdusan is a park that had beautiful landscaping and the wonderful Busan Tower.  There is also a love park.  Couples come up here, take pictures, and then lock a message of love to the railings or other fixtures around the park.  

There are literally thousands of these locks.  There are old rusty locks and new shiny locks.  There are big locks and little locks and even heart shaped locks.  Most have some sort of message  connected to them, but they all at least have something like their names.  There was a cellphone case filled with a message on one of them.  The area of locks just seems to keep going and going.  

Parks and areas like there are seen throughout the world.  It's supposed to be a symbol of your commitment to one another as you close the lock and throw away the key.  However, since so many of these are combination locks I'm not sure how that applies.  I wonder if anyone has tried to remove a lock after they broke up with the person they were with when they placed the lock.  My guess is probably not.  

I happend to come up the stairs just as a couple had their picture taken while sitting on the bench in front of the huge heart on display.  I continued to take pictures and happened to get a picture of them as they wrote their message of love before placing their lock.  They placed their lock and hung out a while before leaving hand in hand.  Obviously in love in one another and happy to be placing symbol of their love for each other for all the world to see.

The thousands of locks really had me thinking.  They represented thousands of couples who had ventured to this area of Busan and made the decision to leave a token of their love behind.  Thousands of couples had been to this park and talked with their significant other about how important they were to each other and how much they loved one another. I wondered how many of them were still together.  I wondered how many of them really did confess and maintain a committed love for one another.  I wondered how many were more in love with the idea of being in love rather than actually being in love.

Love.  There is a lot to that word.  I think about 1 Corinthians 13 where it states that love is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, keeps no records of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices with truth, always protects, trust, hopes, and perseveres, and never fails.  Powerful words.  Huge emotion.  So much more than an idea.  It is an action.

The greatest example of love in action is Jesus Christ dying for our sins.  1 John 3:16 says its so clearly, "This is now we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

Further evidence of God's love for us: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

What powerful statements and powerful challenge.  We commanded to "love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)

Our actions speak.  We do not need to carry around some symbol or even place a symbol someplace to demonstrate our love for God.  It is seen through  how we love one another.  Such a great reminder and truth to hold onto.  God loves us.