What Is Love?

Earlier this week I went for a walk in the area where we live. It’s always an opportunity to contemplate the things going on in my life, and for a time of prayer. Along the way, as I was praying for our eldest son and his fiancee’s wedding, coming up early this year, I heard a bird singing right above me. Looking up, I saw two Black-Collared Barbets sitting next to each other on a cable crossing the street. As I walked on, they stopped singing. It just felt so special, and I decided to read up about them, once I was back home.

Black-Collared Barbets are medium-sized birds, which are native to sub-Saharan Africa. They have beautiful red faces, and black collars and heads. I was fascinated to find out that these birds always sing a duet, commonly rendered as ‘too-puddly too-puddly’, because this was exactly the singing that I heard on my walk.

Their song is an ‘antiphonal’ duet. This means that one bird out of the pair sings the first note, then the other bird in the pair sings the second note. To bystanders, this does not sound as if it comes from two different birds. The birds do not sing simultaneously, but are synchronized in their duets.

I thought this was a beautiful description of marriage, and also of close relationships between friends and family. When I heard the duet, it sounded like one bird singing. Only when I looked up did I realise there were two birds. The two birds weren’t competing or trying to overpower one another. They were each just singing their own notes, and in this way they were encouraging the other bird to also sing his or her own notes.

The one also wasn’t trying to change the other bird’s tune, or even ignoring it. In this way, their duet sounded like one bird singing. Isn’t this how the Lord intends for us to love each other.

‘Therefore comfort each other and edify one another’ (1 Thessalonians 5:11a, NKJV). In 1 Peter 4:8 (NIV), we also read: ‘Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins’.