Real Hope: God's LoveSample

LOOK - OVER THERE. LOVE!

BEHOLD! John the Evangelist hurls open the stage curtains of eternity with an exuberant flourish. Behold! Look at this incredible thing. A love like nothing else you’ve ever experienced. Here John elevates the idea of love out of its diminished, anemic, everyday usage. The fast food we love eating, the binge-worthy TV series we love to watch, and even the love we have for each other.  

This is a majestic love. God’s love is ‘bestowed’. And what is so wondrous about a bestowed love? 

Well, first we are given a glimpse of its scale. Another way of translating bestowed is lavished. This isn’t a shallow tenuous love. More a torrent of unstoppable love. This love doesn’t merely observe man’s pitiful state only to waft about hoping things get better soon. This love saw God send His only Son to die as a man so WE may be called sons and daughters of God, even while we had no concept of what that meant. 

Second, we are reminded that God’s love can’t be earned. The act of bestowing involves a spirit of generosity that recognizes that the beneficiary has no way of obtaining it on their own. 

God’s love is an unfathomable, unwarranted, and logic-defying love. And it’s ours to accept. To course through us and transform us. 

Simply say: Thank you Lord, I need your love! Then live every day in grateful celebration that you are loved by God. 

written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES