How do we follow a God who is love?

So, I'm pretty new to this blog thing but very excited!  God has been doing some awesome things in my life lately...I'm about to get married, making new friends, staying in touch with old friends, and getting to help out in some awesome ministries here!  But besides those material blessings, God has been blessing me with more insight into who He is.  I cannot presume  to claim that I can ever know, in this world, the fullness and greatness of our great God who is Love itself, but I can claim to come to know that fullness and that greatness more as God draws me closer to Himself.  I have been reading The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, and it is amazing!  It is all about learning what love is in order to better serve and understand a God who claims to be Love.  So any wisdom I have in this area (which is likely very little) is not my own, but is borrowed and has been given to me as a gift. But back to the point...how do we serve our great and holy and loving God?  How can we even begin to love like One who IS LOVE?

Well, I'm sorry to say that I don't have those answers, but I am learning, through this book, through God's Word, through prayer, and through interactions with other Christians, a little more of the character of love and of God.  The first step is to recognize that God is Love, but love is not always God.  There are many types and forms of love, and God, who is perfect, is love in its purest and most perfect form.  Lewis points out two main categories of love:  need-love and gift-love.  Our relationship with God is inherently filled with our need for Him and His gift of Himself to us.  But is it possible for us, people who are totally and completely in need of God, to also give Him gift-love?  And can God, who desires relationships for us, pour out that love out of a kind of need for our relationship...now, certainly, God never NEEDS anyone, but does that desire translate into a need-love/gift-love type combo?  It is astounding to me to even begin to think of God's awesomeness (if that's a word :)) and His greatness and humility and grace and kindness and LOVE for me!!  I feel as if I will never get enough of Him, just as He satisfies every need, every desire I can throw at Him!  And to think that God could have that desire for me, but greater...because God is Love! Wow!  And in every manner that I can think to give to and to love Him, He beats me and gives and loves and blesses even more and even more perfectly!  And so the Christian mission must be to love in return and to give in return, at the greatest and highest levels we can attain!  THAT is the best lifestyle as His disciples, as followers of the Way.  It is the only option.