Affective Love

Parent and baby

2 Corinthians 13:11
“Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”

Love is one of the needs of life that is both physical and spiritual. Although it does not fit with a point of view regarding strictly materialistic life, love and touch, or lack of love and touch, can determine our health and sometimes even our life and death.

The claim that love and touch are necessary for life and health was considered so scandalous that it was not until recently that scientists began to prove these claims. The researchers selected 40 hospitalized infants. These infants were not in intensive care, with oxygen, or with intravenous sera, but were too small to leave the hospital. The researchers randomly chose half of the group to receive attention. These infants were touched for three periods of 15 minutes a day. The first five minutes were spent stroking the bodies of the infants. The next five minutes were spent moving slightly the arms and legs of the infants. This was followed by five more minutes of caresses.

Although it often seemed that infants did not notice attention, it made a difference. After only 10 days of this care, cherished children had gained 47% more weight than infants who were ignored. This is especially amazing considering that infants who gained less weight had been fed the same number of calories. Cherished infants were also more active, so they also actually had to metabolize more of the calories and lose weight instead of increasing in weight.

Can we literally live on love? Well, if we need food and other things, but we also need love - especially from our Creator.

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