Greater love has no one than this,
that they laid down their life for their friend.
These where the words bringing me into
this valentines day.
The truth of love, the greatest love
you can have, the only real reason love exists in this world, the picture of a
man who gave up everything so that we wouldn’t have to suffer the total loss
and separation from the father who loved us more then anything.
I’ve never been much of a fan of this
consumer holiday. I don’t get how this world can celebrate a love they don’t
even seem to understand. It all appears to be a form of buying someone’s love.
It’s a little painful to watch the
world go wild with the pink and fluff of this holiday celebrating “Love”. I
mean what does true love even look like?!
Let me give you a picture…
In the beginning was God. God is love.
When sin entered the world there was a
wall that went up. A perfect God cannot be contaminated by sin.
This made God sad. He created us for
the every purpose of love and relationship, not just with each other, but with
himself.
God said that the punishment for sin
was death and eternal separation from Him.
So he sent his only son. A son that
was very much him down to this world to live a life much like we do only
without the sin part.
He sent this child to the world with a
mission. A mission to obliterate and destroy that wall of separation.
When the son was about 33 years old he
gave himself up for this cause. This mission. To die the death that would bring
down the wall and bring back a unity and love between God and his people.
But death could not keep Him. After 3
days dead this man came back to life. The wall had been ripped apart and still
this mans story would not end in death.
Every sin in our lives was forgiven,
the ones in the past and the ones in the future.
There is nothing we can do that will
separate us from the love that God has for us. That love pursues us.
Day after day some of us try to build
up that wall again. We try to ignore or discredit the thought that we are a
forgiven people and we try to count the ways we shouldn’t be loved and why we
will never make it.
When someone else does the work for
you and all you have to do is step in a take the reward and the gift of
accomplishment it is a hard thing to comprehend.
I think the hardest part of this is to
choose to believe that anyone would ever die for us.
Part of the reason this is so hard is
that there is two forces at work here. The God who already won, and the devil
who is seeking any foothold or thought that he can attach himself too and drag
us away from perfect love. Away from perfect forgiveness.
It’s time to stomp on the
devils head and say no more, it’s time to say I want the truth. I’m taking it.
It’s a gift to me, and I choose to receive it.
I CHOOSE LOVE.
Greater love has no one than this,
that they lay down their life for a friend. John 15:13
That’s love. That’s real love.
