“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:10
1 John 4:10
Reflection
There is no greater emotion than love. Love can envelop an eclectic collection of emotions that often contradict each other and leave us either elated or completely confused. Love can conjure up a range of feelings from happiness, laughter and contentment, to thoughts of anger, hatred and jealousy. Love can lift us up, and love can bring us crashing to the ground. Love unites cultures and love can also divide communities. Love can conquer all obstacles of life and love can leave us utterly defeated. Love can find us included among close friends and family or leave us feeling abandoned and lonely. Love can be all, or it can be nothing.
Love also generates peace, a peace and joyful contentment that transforms the very essence of who we are. It can catapult us from the often mundane pace of life to an exciting journey that leaves us confident of accomplishing anything that we face. Love can consume us with peace, and most often that peace comes from being loved, rather than loving. Being loved by others is a confirming indication that we matter. That we are worthy of love. That the make-up of who we are, has caused another human being to be moved to this radical and all encompassing emotion: Love.
As we read these words today’s passage, we discover a very simple and yet complex and perplexing truth: God loves us. He loves me. He loves you. And all that God has done through Christ, has nothing to do with how much, or how little we love God, but how much he loves us. His love for each one of us is an overwhelming and transforming mystery; the same mystery that revolves around the incarnation. A love so massive and without limit, and yet it was contained and confined in the limited vessel of a small child. A love that compelled the God of all that is, all that has been and all that will be, to descend into the darkness of this chaotic world and live among us. This is love: Emmanuel, God with us!
Prayer
God, your love for us is without limit, without understanding and without end. In our feeble attempts to love you, God, let us receive your love through the blessings of this Advent Season. Let us rest, feel your peace and be loved by you.
Amen
God, your love for us is without limit, without understanding and without end. In our feeble attempts to love you, God, let us receive your love through the blessings of this Advent Season. Let us rest, feel your peace and be loved by you.
Amen
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