Love is Stronger than Death

We will encounter no force on earth greater than love.

Love overshadows the cruelty of war, the fury of man's ambitions, and the inundation of vainglory that misguides our policies and polemics -- such powers yield in the face of true love.

Love grows with wisdom, and one man, to me, has recently demonstrated the correlation between both. My father-in-law, Dan Morrison, is a man of faith, love, charity, and courage. He puts everyone before himself and loves unconditionally. His bravery in the face of hardship is fueled by the tremendous love in his heart, and I would match it against any evil that man and the devil could conspire to forge.

Last Sunday night, his wife of 33 years -- my mother-in-law -- Paulette Morrison, suddenly passed away in her sleep. As an exemplary husband, and man of God, he devoted his entire working life to the fulfillment of her needs. Together, they lived their lives tending the garden of familial love. They raised three children into adulthood, shaping each one into distinctive pillars of virtue.

It would be most reasonable to expect a man to fall apart in the face of such a devastating loss. However, during the course of the last week no one was stronger or more courageous than my father-in-law. It was apparent to me that binding his strength and courage was the power and promise of love -- love of others and love of God. 

When my wife and I were married, our marriage verse came from the Song of Solomon, chapter 8:

⁶ Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be despised.

Those words have been tested and verified the past week. Dan took care of all of us with surprising strength. Every day, just as Paulette would have, Dan tended to our needs before his own. Instead of succumbing to the fear that death brings, Dan held steadfastly to God's promise in Isaiah 41:10: "Fear not, for I am with you...I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness." He refuted the temptation of despair through his loving conduct, emblematic of the courage we find in Psalm 23:4: "...I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me." 

Paulette was a gentle and kind person who would give you her last penny to alleviate your suffering. And the power of her love continues with Dan, who fuels the fire of compassion by his unending faith. The endurance of their love together will illuminate and enlighten the way for the young and not-yet-so-wise, like myself, and the weary, like all of us after last week. 

I can only be grateful to know such a man, and to have known the wonderful woman who helped inspire him.

I know what I want to be when I grow up, and it is not a lawyer, a politician, or chairman of the board. It is simply to be the type of man whose love is stronger than death. 

Dan Morrison is such a man and a prime example of love's awesome power.

We love and miss you, Paulette. Our love will pull us through.

"Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love."

--Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part II, Book VI, Chap. 3