John 3:14-21
The songs won't leave my head, they just keep coming. How many songs can you think of which contain a refrain about God's love? For me there is a cacophony, some are from our hymnal, some are from pop culture, some are from contemporary Christian music all contain our wonder at God's love.
Our words about God's love pale, sometimes poetry can capture a piece, but every time we try and explain it we loose an aspect of it. We end up making it conditional once we compare it to a parent's love because all the weight of expectations are still intertwined in this and sometimes we are very conditional with our children. Even the gospelist has a problem because the more they go on the more it becomes conditional. If we just stopped at God so loved the world and everything, every salvation story, every in breaking of God into the human family is a show of God's love for us.
God so loves the world that God tries again and again to interact, bless, guide, let them know they are not forgotten because as humans we need assurances on all these levels. God never stops trying to reach us with love. God's love does incredible things. It makes small insignificant people seem big, it is scandalous in who is loved: women from the margins, men who can't talk, aren't physically handsome, don't want to listen to instructions, do listen to instructions and marry women who are outcasts. God's love just doesn't make sense, yet it is there for us.
God's love is there for us even when we feel unworthy, feel as though we have failed, feel as if we are unlovable, think we are not blessed. God's love reaches out abundantly, beyond what we can imagine. This is why there are so many stories in the bible regarding God's love and yet we have a hard time understanding it. It is our response to this abundant love which is important. Do we respond with the abundance we receive or do we limit it, control it, make it human? Then this is some of the story of Job, or maybe the reaction of the younger brother in the prodigal, or anytime we try to say that this love is not abundant and only reserved for those who are deserving.
God's love takes 66 books to try and describe, so don't be too hard on yourself if you only just start to understand it. We could spend our whole lives trying and this is the key. Try and try more to understand it. Try to turn it again and again, looking deeper and deeper. Read poetry about it, read other books, read someone you have a hard time identifying with. Sing the songs of love and see if you can hear the traces of God's love imprinted in them. Sing them passionately, sing them sorrowfully, sing them fully, let God's love break through in rays and traces of light and shadow. Then we might get the hint and taste of God's relentless love for us and all God's creation.
The songs won't leave my head, they just keep coming. How many songs can you think of which contain a refrain about God's love? For me there is a cacophony, some are from our hymnal, some are from pop culture, some are from contemporary Christian music all contain our wonder at God's love.
Our words about God's love pale, sometimes poetry can capture a piece, but every time we try and explain it we loose an aspect of it. We end up making it conditional once we compare it to a parent's love because all the weight of expectations are still intertwined in this and sometimes we are very conditional with our children. Even the gospelist has a problem because the more they go on the more it becomes conditional. If we just stopped at God so loved the world and everything, every salvation story, every in breaking of God into the human family is a show of God's love for us.
God so loves the world that God tries again and again to interact, bless, guide, let them know they are not forgotten because as humans we need assurances on all these levels. God never stops trying to reach us with love. God's love does incredible things. It makes small insignificant people seem big, it is scandalous in who is loved: women from the margins, men who can't talk, aren't physically handsome, don't want to listen to instructions, do listen to instructions and marry women who are outcasts. God's love just doesn't make sense, yet it is there for us.
God's love is there for us even when we feel unworthy, feel as though we have failed, feel as if we are unlovable, think we are not blessed. God's love reaches out abundantly, beyond what we can imagine. This is why there are so many stories in the bible regarding God's love and yet we have a hard time understanding it. It is our response to this abundant love which is important. Do we respond with the abundance we receive or do we limit it, control it, make it human? Then this is some of the story of Job, or maybe the reaction of the younger brother in the prodigal, or anytime we try to say that this love is not abundant and only reserved for those who are deserving.
God's love takes 66 books to try and describe, so don't be too hard on yourself if you only just start to understand it. We could spend our whole lives trying and this is the key. Try and try more to understand it. Try to turn it again and again, looking deeper and deeper. Read poetry about it, read other books, read someone you have a hard time identifying with. Sing the songs of love and see if you can hear the traces of God's love imprinted in them. Sing them passionately, sing them sorrowfully, sing them fully, let God's love break through in rays and traces of light and shadow. Then we might get the hint and taste of God's relentless love for us and all God's creation.
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