According to Rae Oliver (2023) It is estimated that Americans will spend an estimated $21.8 billion dollars during valentine’s day (58 million pounds of chocolate, and $2.3 billion in floral arrangements). This is the day most associate with our show of perpetual love and affection.
If that is so, I would like to begin with a question, what is God’s nature towards us, his creation? Reading and interpreting scripture literally, without suitable context tends to veil our view as we see Him as the slayer of lands, kingdoms, and people. That is, however, far from the truth, as the basis of our hope rests in His demonstrated love towards us. The fact that we are here, even today, demonstrates the reach of God’s love towards us. His love is not reserved for annual celebration, but embodies a lifetime of constant, immutable, undeniable affection. The love of God is a Biblical truth, scripture tells us unmistakably, God is Love.
Today’s podcast is titled.
A Love of Consequence
1 John 4:7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
There is a very simple song we learned as children titled, Jesus Loves Me, and we go on to say, cause the Bible tells me so. We would happily sing the lyrics with the greatest assurance, believing every single word, because our youth and innocence allowed us to see the world entirely different. How does something seemingly so simple, now become so difficult?
God loves you immensely. In fact, God’s love is so astonishing that there are hundreds of Biblical scriptures acknowledging that fact. God, speaking to Jeremiah, in 31:3, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
How do we then, define God's love for us? How is it illustrated in our lives? We are reminded of the magnitude of what He would go through to find us, to draw us near by His side. Love is defined in countless ways, but God’s is not equivalent to our love and affection for inanimate things that lack the ability to reciprocate the same. We love a house, but it does not love us back; we adore a car, but it neither cares, nor returns that which was given; I love McDonald’s cheeseburgers, but that as well is temporal, as it only satisfies the needs of my hunger for a brief moment; and sadly, there are people in our lives, presently and in the past, that no matter how much we love them, how much we care for them, or how much we praise them, they are incapable of demonstrating the same. One whose heart is so hardened and calloused, that it is incapable of affection, feeling or emotion. God, however, never intended for us to be so, because of all the gifts that one can receive this day, flowers, chocolates, teddy bears, jewelry, fine dinning, and the like, there is none greater than the gift of God’s love.
