Is love the most important thing in the world? You bet it is! There are many kinds of love. The Greeks counted four kinds and had four different names for them. One was the domestic, everyday sort of love; one was friendship; one was worship or adoration of God; another was physical or romantic love - the variety that usually pops into our mind when we say the word love, just like that.
Actually, non-physical love goes farther and lasts longer and accomplishes much more. It's needed more too. It may not be as exciting as physical love, but if it boiled down to a choice of one or the other, we'd all take the less glamorous kind; for it is this type of love that cooks our meals and washes our clothes - that's mother love.
We know this non-physical love by a number of names - we often call it sympathy or compassion. We term a person sympathetic because he appears to understand us. The miracle of Jesus was performed in the spirit of compassion. The child in an orphanage needs love and that's exactly what he misses; not the food or the clothing or the bed, he has these. Nurses in hospitals these days hold the newborn infant while feeding it - it's called T.L.C. - tender loving care.
We all wish for love, the non-physical kind. We want someone to care about what happens to us. Love emanates from a person as a glow from a light hidden inside the body. It's this love that creates a home out of a wooden or a brick structure.
God loves us. To care what happens to other people is a God-like quality. We need to care for other people, to serve them, to help them with a feeling of love inside us as we do so.