Is Love Blind Or Not?

Have you ever met someone who made you get stars in your eyes so much so that there was nothing anyone could say about them that would convince you that they were bad in any way?

In that instance you could say that your love made you blind to their actions.

And you indeed became blind to anything they said or did that was objectionable. It seemed as though you would tolerate any and everything that person did.

This type of love, I think is not love at all. It is closer to infatuation.

When you are infatuated with someone you see things in a light that flatters the person and not in the true light.

When I think of the statement, 'Love is blind', I think of young teenage girls falling over themselves over the latest K-pop band or Taylor Swift's eternally loyal fans who swear she's never done anything wrong or if she has it is totally justified.

I also think of people who stay in abusive relationships convincing themselves that each day will be different because that person is not really violent, it just happens when they are stressed etc.

So many times from so many people the well known belief that love is blind is advertised and condoned. It is said to explain the weird, crazy things that people do for love. Like Romeo falling in love with Juliet - he must have been blind to fall for a Capulet right? Except, I don't think he was blind at all. Unlike the rest of his family - and hers - he was able to see something that the rest were blind to. The fact that the hate they had for each other was meaningless. I believe that love, real love, is not blind. In fact I think it opens your eyes to truth.

"For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." Matthew 13: 15-16 K.J.V.

Anyone who can honestly claim to have been in love will tell you that every little thing a person does, they notice it. They see it. And they store it and remember it at the oddest times.They recognize the good and the bad that come in a relationship and they are not afraid to state the bad out loud.

You know when you have a friend and they like somebody, and to you, they just may not be that great because of the way they act?And you tell your friend what you feel because you care, and they don't want to hear any of it? Then in time they have messed up your friend and you want to say 'I told you so,' but you don't because you feel sorry for your friend? That's the kind of situation that would make people think that love is blind.

But look closer -in that situation, love never was blind. See, your friend fancied themselves in love and acted foolishly, but you, the person who truly loves your friend, did not. Your eyes were wide open to the hurt your friend was setting themselves up for. You saw, you heard, and you understood with your heart just what was going on.

A parent who loves and cares for a child tells their child about the wrong things they do. They love them, and see them for who they are, correcting and guiding them along the way. Consider education. When a parent realizes that their son or daughter is failing a class they do not sit there and act blind to it, they address the issue. Perhaps they may suggest that the specific class is not for them, or, if the class is something mandatory like Math, the parent will see to it that their child gets proper tuition in order to improve in the subject, but at no time was the parent blinded by their love for the child, it was their love that helped them to see what was best for him/her. If a parent finds out that bad behavior is the source of the child's problems in class, then that too, will be addressed. Pushing it under the rug would by no means demonstrate love and that is exactly what would happen if love was blind.

Jesus, who, without dispute knows what love is (He laid down His life for His friends) was and is the most discerning person there ever will be. His eyes were and are open to the truth, and His heart understands like ours can't.

When the rich young man came forward and asked Jesus what it was that he should do to get to heaven, Jesus told him to obey the commandments. He highlighted some and the young man answered promptly that he had obeyed each and every one. The Bible says then that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Then He told him that there was just one thing he lacked and he would get it if he sold everything he had and gave it to the poor and then followed Jesus. The young man went away sad because he had a lot. He was very rich indeed. (See Mark 10: 17-22)

Jesus saw this young man, who asked Him for truth and loved him. Because He loved him, He gave him the truth he asked for. The Bible says that the young man was sad because he owned a lot. If love was really blind then wouldn't Jesus have said to the young man, "Great! You've done everything right, I love you," and pushed truth under a rug? But love is always honest and cannot lie. That is why the truth can sometimes make loved ones turn away from you, just as this young man turned away from the Lord. It can hurt and it can offend.

So what am I saying? That truth is love?

1 John 4:8 says that God is love and in John 14:6 Jesus says that He is the way the truth and the life. Jesus also says that He and the Father are one.

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