Love Speaks

 

Our grandson, Justin, is getting married in April, and we couldn’t be happier. This love story began when they met in seventh grade and has stood the test of time and adversity all the way through high school and now as they both graduate from college. Looking from the outside, I see their unconditional love.

 

This past weekend, his mother, our daughter Lorrie, and I were honored to celebrate the upcoming nuptials at Cailyn’s lovely bridal shower. And what a beautiful bride she’ll make!

 

Like most of you with children and grandchildren, we love Justin and Cailyn. We’re thankful for the love they share and their forgiving hearts. Honoring God by honoring their parents became more important than harboring anger or frustration. Truly, LOVE covers a multitude of sins.[1]

And aren’t we so thankful for love? I know some have suffered loss, and this month may be a bit painful, but would you ever consider not loving? Romance wanes over time, yet deep, abiding love is what sustains us. Alfred Lord Tennyson said it so eloquently, “Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.”[2]

 

Tennyson’s best friend died at the tender age of 22, and historythroughfiction.com explained: “While Tennyson experienced loss from which he believed he would never recover, this elegy indicates that on the other side of a seventeen-year grieving journey, he found hope in the notion that love itself is a miracle. And it’s worth every moment of pain-filled loss.”

 

Why would love be a miracle? Well, love does not exist apart from God. Scripture tells us we love because God first loved us.[3] God IS love.[4] And love originates with Him.

 

I hear your protests, “Tell me something I don’t know.” Ok then, think about what life would be like if humans didn’t know love or possess the ability to love. There would be no relationships, only disconnected people with no bond, empathy, or sympathy. We’d be like robots but worse since AI androids can be programmed to mimic emotion.

 

Therefore, because God created us unique, fearfully, and wonderfully made,[5] and granted this capacity, LOVE is a miracle of human life. As such, author Gary Chapman was able to identify the different ways humans give and receive love in his book, The Five Love Languages.

What languages of love did Chapman discover? Quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Do you know yours? Have you detected your spouse’s or your significant other’s? It’s taken me years to learn mine and then to speak my husband’s.

 

But think about this. Since God is love, He must speak love in all five ways and more. Right? So, let’s dig deeper.

 

The Almighty longs for time with His children. When someone strongly desires something like quality time, it’s because this is the way they give love and receive it. Daily, God knocks on the door of our hearts. Do we open, pray, and read His love letter? By doing so, His love speaks. And the love of God is “…poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”[6]

 

“Fear not,” this Mighty One also said, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.” The LORD saves, quiets you with His love, rejoices over you with gladness and singing, and loves you with everlasting love.[7] Now that’s affirmation!

 

And if we are His, God, through His Spirit, has given us spiritual gifts and physical talents to use for His glory. Furthermore, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”[8] So, to demonstrate His love, while we were still in our sin, Christ died for us. Jesus, God the Son took our sin penalty and gave us Himself along with eternal life as a Gift.[9] In this GIFT was His Supreme Act of Service. But He continues to serve by being the ONLY Mediator between God and men.[10]

 

Are tears flowing yet? If so, please know God collects our tears in His bottle and writes them in His book.[11] What’s more, He touches our hearts, lifting us with His righteous right arm and inscribing us on the palm of His hand.[12]

 

You see, God created us to need relationship, because He desired relationship. But without LOVE, there is no relationship. For this reason, Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider, supplied love, and by it, His LOVE speaks.

 

---

[1] I Peter 4:8

[2] In Memoriam A.H.H.

[3] I John 4:18

[4] I John 4:8

[5] Psalm 139:14

[6] Romans 5:5

[7] Isaiah 43:1; Zephaniah 3:17; Jeremiah 31:3

[8] John 15:13

[9] Romans 5:8; Romans 6:23

[10] I Timothy 2:5

[11] Psalm 56:8

[12] Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 49:16