I heard myself asking, “Is love a virtue if it’s deserved?”

As if some deserve love and others don’t.

What a horrible thought.

Because everyone I meet deserves love. Not because of their own goodness or virtue but because of God’s image they carry, and Christ’s death out of love for them.

Love is not a virtue when the recipient is easy to love.  Love is a virtue when the person is difficult, awkward, unlovely. And they always deserve love.