As I write this, it is Valentines Day. Across our city, people are expressing their love and commitment to one another. It is a wonderful thing to know that you are loved. I would content that humans need to both be loved and love in return. We are social creatures, designed for deep relationship. The absence of love is both painful and malformative. There are doubtless many today who are feeling alone, unloved and deeply hurt.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at God’s description of what He is like, as given to Moses in Exodus 34:6-8. We have already seen that God is full of mercy, and slow to anger. This weekend, we’re considering what it means for God to be full of unfailing love.
Max Lucado writes that, “If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every Spring and sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk to him, he’ll listen. …Face it, friend. He’s crazy about you.”
Our God is not some distant, uninterested God. He is, rather, the one who loves us. He who knows each star in the sky also knows our name, and every hair on our heads.
God is love. Love has always flowed between Father, Son and Spirit. In love, God chose to create us. And, in love, God choose to act to save us from sin and death – and to invite us into His love, and into His life.
God’s love is not something abstract – it is expressed in concrete ways. And His love is not fickle – His love for us never wavers.
And He has adopted us as His children. But what does that mean for us and for the way we love?
Today’s text: 1 John 4:7-21
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