“All the way to heaven and back” is a saying in my sister-in-law Brooke’s family; it is so important that it is engraved on the inside of both their wedding rings! The phrase pairs nicely with a saying much beloved in my childhood: “there and back again.”

This phrase is used by my sister-in-law's family to describe the quality of how devotedly they love one another, it shows me many dimensions to the meaning of love is. Love is joining with another person on a journey, and because God is love, the journey cannot lead anywhere but to Heaven. Love is a force, carrying us upward and homeward, even as the journey grows challenging. Love is receiving the gift freely given from Heaven; the gift of Love coming down to us that we may love one another here and now. Love is a prayer, that asks for Heaven to be formed back here, in each family, in each household, in each heart. Love is the only path that leads us *through* the treacherous ground of this life so we may see the Beauty on the other side.