Why love?

I heard her coming before I saw her... Her bare feet smacked on the concrete floor and she was, as she often is, laughing. She flew behind the deli and whether it was me or her daddy that she was looking for I'm not sure but regardless it was me who was there and me who got the hugs! As her little arms wrapped themselves tight around my waist and her giggle burst into my ears I felt that swell in my heart like an ocean wave. In an instant, I knew that I love this child. I hadn't quite realized it so clearly before but in that moment I knew that I do, truly, deeply love this darling beautiful delightful child. How does that happen? How does one go from being a stranger to loving fiercely in so short a time? How can one heart grow so very much in just three months? And how does one know if the love with which one loves is ok? Love is such a vulnerable thing! To love someone is to give them the power to hurt you. As I look at this place, these people, all the enormous amount of things I have come to love since I moved here, my heart catches and a bit of panic slices through me and I want to know HOW this happened! How did I come to care so much for these people that I work with? How did I get to the point that when my dear new roommate is sad, I am sad. How did I come to the place with my friend who I have known for so short a time that when her mouth hurts I want to cry for her? Since when do I love Brother 2 so much that when a customer is rude to him I want to throw her ground beef in her face? And the customers, why, how, do I care about them so much that its super important to me to where bright clothes that cheer them up? How can it be that I have come to care so much about a lady I have never even met simply because she is the sick friend of one of my favorite customers? I want to know the logistics of love. I want to understand the science, know the formula, figure out the reasons WHY I love these people. I want to know why it is that already Strider's youngest nephew has me COMPLETELY wrapped around his tiny little finger!? How do you reconcile the fact that, if you want it to or not, love happens? Real, true, deep love. The kind that wants the best for the object of its emotion regardless of the consequences for yourself. My co-workers, the people at church, the customers of the store, and most of all Strider's family... Since when does love just grow even when I think it wont?? Even when I fight it? I don't have answers to my questions. I wish I did. I know that I love them. I know that if I left here, left them, I would leave more than a piece of my heart, I would shatter my heart. Perhaps that is simply the nature of love. Maybe love is a force all its own, a part of the heart of God that just wells up and swallows the heart of His children? If you have an answer I would love to hear it!