A friend brought home a baby this week. He is tiny and fragile, attached to tubes and monitors. Four months old and the size of a newborn. He doesn't take much food by mouth and there is a good chance he cannot hear. The coming weeks will be full of doctor's visits and surgeries, and his future is full of question marks, but oh! Is he loved!
His siblings have welcomed him with joy even though I'm sure it means more responsibility and less free time for them. I watched his young sister give a presentation on the wonders of him to her classmates. She absolutely glowed with happiness.
My friend sat by a stroller full of his equipment all day as her children had their classes, and she stroked him and held him and patiently fed him bit by bit, and I could tell she saw only perfection in his tiny form.
And he isn't even hers.
I spoke with another friend at lunch who told me about her parents, who took in over 100 foster children during the course of her childhood and who now work as child advocates within the system--as well as wholeheartedly pouring themselves into the lives of their 26 grandchildren. She said, " I have never met more loving people in my whole life. They literally never think about themselves."
I have been thinking a lot about love lately. It is one of those words that is chucked around so indiscriminately these days that it has lost its impact, but no matter how our society has tried to bastardize it, love is a thing. And like any REAL thing, it exists as an entity outside of what anyone tries to make it.
Love's attributes are described explicitly in Scripture.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
"It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,3 it is not easily angered,4 it keeps no record of wrongs.
But what else is it?
Love is a choice.
We know this because we are commanded over and over to offer it--to God, to our spouses, to our neighbors, to our enemies, and to our brothers and sisters--regardless of our emotions.
We know this because we are commanded over and over to offer it--to God, to our spouses, to our neighbors, to our enemies, and to our brothers and sisters--regardless of our emotions.
It is not dependent on feelings, but rather on commitment and obedience.
"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.' " (Matthew 22:37-39)
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.' " (Matthew 22:37-39)
Love is expressed in action--often sacrificially.
( 1 John 3: 16-18) "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.1 And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.2
"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,3 how can the love of God be in him?4
"Dear children,5 let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
Love does not wait to be returned.
"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,3 how can the love of God be in him?4
Love does not wait to be returned.
1 John 4:10 "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
This is what is so amazing about love. Its concern is only ever outward. Even at its source.
Especially at its source.
The love between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is flowing so freely and fiercely that it casts an invitation over all things to come and join it and enjoy it forever.
John 17:20-24 (Christ's prayer for his disciples)
"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
What could God gain by asking me to share in the love expressed between the Father, Son, and Spirit?
Do I add to its unity? Its holy perfection? Its strength? Its beauty?
It strikes me that my role in this is simply to be a conduit for something that is so big it cannot be contained by its source.
It is for me to stand under it and be filled, overwhelmed, and completed by its glory, and then in turn to let it spill from me into the lives of others.
I am to drink deeply from Love's abundance, and then turn my unveiled face toward those who do not know where to find it. And lead them in.
Love is the gospel.
1 John 4:7-10 "" Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. "
I struggle with the enormity of the privilege sometimes and I am saddened by my inability to fulfill my role adequately.
Especially at its source.
The love between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is flowing so freely and fiercely that it casts an invitation over all things to come and join it and enjoy it forever.
John 17:20-24 (Christ's prayer for his disciples)
"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
What could God gain by asking me to share in the love expressed between the Father, Son, and Spirit?
Do I add to its unity? Its holy perfection? Its strength? Its beauty?
It strikes me that my role in this is simply to be a conduit for something that is so big it cannot be contained by its source.
It is for me to stand under it and be filled, overwhelmed, and completed by its glory, and then in turn to let it spill from me into the lives of others.
I am to drink deeply from Love's abundance, and then turn my unveiled face toward those who do not know where to find it. And lead them in.
Love is the gospel.
1 John 4:7-10 "" Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. "
I struggle with the enormity of the privilege sometimes and I am saddened by my inability to fulfill my role adequately.
I am also grieved by my tendency to stand in the love of God and suck it up like a black hole.
This is why I appreciate seeing love lived out by the people around me--my friend and her foster baby, sacrificial parents and grandparents, open-hearted friends. They are all burning reminders not to be stingy with something that isn't even mine to begin with.
The only Person with the right to put conditions on Love is Love Himself, and His only condition is that we allow Him to wash us individually from our sins and dress us in His holiness so that we can safely come into His presence and enjoy His sweetness.
That's it.
He doesn't require us to be pretty first. Or to like Him back first. Or to not be irritating. Or to be convenient, or economical, or easy, or compliant, or to share His interests, or to smell good, or to be strong.
We just have to hold up our skinny, weak arms and accept God's love on His terms (which by the way, are for our good) and He welcomes us into His family and loves us and loves us and loves us.
And that love gentles our hearts, and comforts our spirits, smooths out our rough edges and keeps us from harm.
And then He asks us to love others in that same way.
John 13:34 ""A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
That's it. Since I didn't create love, I don't have the power to define it.
And I don't have the prerogative to withhold it.
Period.
How then can I fail so often in this?
Just this week, I have offended God and been forgiven--and then nurtured a bitter root in my heart over someone else's offense toward me.
God has patiently borne with my weaknesses and I have offered my children impatience with theirs.
He has made Himself available to me and I have grumbled over being inconvenienced.
He has gently convicted me of sin and I blew up at one of His little image bearers over the same thing.
He has blessed me in a thousand ways without my thanks and I have kept a ledger over being under-appreciated a handful of times.
He has spoken words of life to my spirit and I have thrown knives into the spirits of those closest to me.
He has crafted life-giving plans for my days and I have scrapped them so I could draw aimless circles in the dirt.
This is not hyperbole! I am cut to the heart when I think of these real failures.
And yet, every morning His mercies are new! He has plunged my failures into the sea of forgetfulness. He has created in me a clean heart and renewed a steadfast spirit within me.
My prayer is that I would be as quick to forgive as I am forgiven. That I give grace as I have been given grace. That I would open my heart and let the love of God flow through me.
That I would be too consumed by His desires to notice my own.
Did you ever notice that Jesus didn't seem to care what others did to him? Or thought of him? Or took from Him?
He wasn't jealous for His time or His reputation or His stuff or His rights.
He was zealous for His Father and for His children, not for Himself. The only passages I can remember where He references His own needs are once briefly in the garden of Gethsemane as He contemplates the horror of His impending separation from His Beloved, and on the cross when that horror became reality.
Matthew 27:46 "About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' (which means 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?')"
I want to be as much like Jesus in this way as possible. I want to be so full of the love of God that I would look at personal offenses and see opportunities to show grace.
I want to see needs as invitations and time as a gift to be given, not a possession to be hoarded.
I want to experience the weaknesses and failings of others and not give way to irritation, but rather give thanks for the mercies that have been shown to me and the chance to give mercy.
This is why I appreciate seeing love lived out by the people around me--my friend and her foster baby, sacrificial parents and grandparents, open-hearted friends. They are all burning reminders not to be stingy with something that isn't even mine to begin with.
The only Person with the right to put conditions on Love is Love Himself, and His only condition is that we allow Him to wash us individually from our sins and dress us in His holiness so that we can safely come into His presence and enjoy His sweetness.
That's it.
He doesn't require us to be pretty first. Or to like Him back first. Or to not be irritating. Or to be convenient, or economical, or easy, or compliant, or to share His interests, or to smell good, or to be strong.
We just have to hold up our skinny, weak arms and accept God's love on His terms (which by the way, are for our good) and He welcomes us into His family and loves us and loves us and loves us.
And that love gentles our hearts, and comforts our spirits, smooths out our rough edges and keeps us from harm.
And then He asks us to love others in that same way.
John 13:34 ""A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
That's it. Since I didn't create love, I don't have the power to define it.
And I don't have the prerogative to withhold it.
Period.
How then can I fail so often in this?
Just this week, I have offended God and been forgiven--and then nurtured a bitter root in my heart over someone else's offense toward me.
God has patiently borne with my weaknesses and I have offered my children impatience with theirs.
He has made Himself available to me and I have grumbled over being inconvenienced.
He has gently convicted me of sin and I blew up at one of His little image bearers over the same thing.
He has blessed me in a thousand ways without my thanks and I have kept a ledger over being under-appreciated a handful of times.
He has spoken words of life to my spirit and I have thrown knives into the spirits of those closest to me.
He has crafted life-giving plans for my days and I have scrapped them so I could draw aimless circles in the dirt.
This is not hyperbole! I am cut to the heart when I think of these real failures.
And yet, every morning His mercies are new! He has plunged my failures into the sea of forgetfulness. He has created in me a clean heart and renewed a steadfast spirit within me.
My prayer is that I would be as quick to forgive as I am forgiven. That I give grace as I have been given grace. That I would open my heart and let the love of God flow through me.
That I would be too consumed by His desires to notice my own.
Did you ever notice that Jesus didn't seem to care what others did to him? Or thought of him? Or took from Him?
He wasn't jealous for His time or His reputation or His stuff or His rights.
He was zealous for His Father and for His children, not for Himself. The only passages I can remember where He references His own needs are once briefly in the garden of Gethsemane as He contemplates the horror of His impending separation from His Beloved, and on the cross when that horror became reality.
Matthew 27:46 "About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' (which means 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?')"
I want to be as much like Jesus in this way as possible. I want to be so full of the love of God that I would look at personal offenses and see opportunities to show grace.
I want to see needs as invitations and time as a gift to be given, not a possession to be hoarded.
I want to experience the weaknesses and failings of others and not give way to irritation, but rather give thanks for the mercies that have been shown to me and the chance to give mercy.
And I want to love God so much that a space between us is the only thing that could truly rock my world.
And that's what He wants too.
******************
John 15:9-17 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
"10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
"13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
"16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other."
Colossians 3:12-17
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
"15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
"17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
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