No Greater Love
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” -- John 10:14
How do you define love? Many people think of love as a feeling, like a husband for a wife or a parent for a child. Others see love in action. It is defined by how we treat one another. The dictionary even offers one explanation for love as God’s benevolence toward mankind.
Yes, God has shown us grace and charity. Our Creator gave us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that those who believed could be reconciled to Him. That is love. That Jesus would die for my sins and yours.
But before all that love came to earth in the form of a tiny baby. His first cries echoed in the night. Mary no doubt held him close as Joseph and the animals in the stable looked on. God would have been watching too, loving His Son even as He understood the path that lay ahead.
Love isn’t always easy. We want it to be. We don’t want to work at love. We don’t want to love our enemies or the people who mistreat us. We want to love those who also love us. We want to do good, loving things for those who do good, loving things for us.
How grateful I am that God doesn’t view love that way. He didn’t wait for me to realize how great a sinner I am and how much I need Him before loving me. God loved me from the first and waited patiently for me to realize how much I love Him. He never gave up on me. He’ll never give up on you. That’s love of the deepest kind.
Sometimes as I read the Bible I am amazed that God would still love any of us. We have all done such horrible things. We have betrayed God and His goodness. We have wronged Him again and again. We have turned away. We have filled our lives with sin.
Yet His goodness never fails. His love remains steady and true. In our darkest nights, God reaches out to hold our hand. His love surrounds us all our days.
What is love?
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” -- John 15:13
May we always remember that one night long ago when a baby was born to show the world how much God truly loves us all.
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