The Look of Love
I’m certain that I’m showing my age by suggesting that one of the most memorable pop/jazz songs of the late 60’s is the Burt Bacharach composition “The Look of Love.” Stan Getz did the first instrumental version in December 1966.
The first version with lyrics was sung by Dusty Springfield for the cinematic James Bond spoof Casino Royale soundtrack. The version won an Oscar nomination and in 2008 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
I recently saw what I believe was an authentic and gripping look of love. I saw it in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, over the 2018 Thanksgiving holidays while visiting one of my granddaughters who is a student athlete at LSU.
It was not in a cafe or university student center where starry eyed lovers can often be seen staring into each other’s eyes and brushing wisps of hair from their lover’s face.
The look of love I saw occurred at the airport as my wife and I were waiting for the flight back to Atlanta. We had arrived at the departure lounge early — just as the preceding flight was completing the boarding process.
The last person to board was a boy who appeared to be 11 or 12 years old. He was saying goodbye to his father. I was too far away to hear what they were saying but just before turning to walk down the jet-way, the boy looked in my direction and seemed to make eye contact with me. His face was contorted in emotional pain as tears streamed down his cheeks. Tears that his father tenderly brushed away.
After the gate agent beckoned the boy down the jet-way, his father stood alone waving goodbye to his son, now out of our view.
Love is such a mystery — like a vast subterranean river that flows through our lives, knitting our souls together in its flow to eternity just below the surface. That is, until its object begins slipping away or worse — is lost. Then, it cascades over it’s banks overflowing our hearts. Only then do we realize how much we really loved someone.
Perhaps if we had a better grasp of this reality, we would be more deliberate with the time we share with family and friends. And especially our spouses.
Realizing the gravity and profound pain of losing any one of us, our Heavenly Father became a man and sacrificed Himself counting the pain of losing any one of us as greater than the pain of His torment.
The most captivating look of love is in the shape of a cross.
“For God So Loved the World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son…………”
Kent Weathersby
View Comments