When it comes to God's love, it's not about you, it's about God. You know how when a bad break up is about to happen, a very awkward, yet familiar conversation ensues. The party responsible for the break up says something along the lines of:
It's not you. It's me.
Yeah, that. When it comes to God, it's really not you. It's him. Except with God, his love is constant. On your good days and your bad days, he loves you. When in doubt; when you fail; when you are unfaithful; when you don't deserve to be loved; when you don't feel his love; he still loves you. Yeah it's not you, it's him. He loves you so much, it hurts. And when it hurt really bad on the cross, guess what: he still went ahead—willingly—to die for you. Just so he wouldn't have to live without you. That's an unadulterated, undiluted love right there. He loves you so much that he promised to never leave you or even forsake you. He promised to never ever abandon or fail you.
God is LOVE. That's who he is.
The slight problem is that instead of looking for this perfect love in God, we look for it in human beings, even though God already gave us and no human being is capable of that kind of love. At least I'm certainly not. But it's understandable that we neglect a magnificent love since God's love is too great to be understood fully.
This is by no means saying to ignore human love. Actually, this is a call for more human love. Now we would never love like God but we can attempt to. We can and should love by doing. Love should be practiced not just repeatedly said through trite and corny words. Love is an action. We love by doing; by being there; by caring; by showing up; by being decent human beings; we love because God first loved us.
If we can't love, we can't know God, because God is love. And if you do not love a person you see and feel, how can you love God whom you do not see? There is however a caveat. While we should love both romantically and filially, we have to remember that as humans we have limits. We can't absolve God of his responsibilities and make fellow humans our ultimate sources of joy, hope, peace etc. No. They will fail you, and when they do, you become so angry, so vile, so hurt that you may feel like your heart is literally ripping apart. Some of us (read me in particular) hold others to such high standards that there is merely room to tolerate certain mistakes. I have learned in my few years of adulthood that people can be unreliable, absent, untrustworthy, liars, morally corrupt and bankrupt. I will love them anyway, or at least try to.
In the War Room movie (which was really great, by the way), the woman said our joy is found in God not a human being. So while you are enjoying Valentines's day, and you should if you have a romantic partner (just be wise, abeg), remember that God is your source of joy. They might be the means, but your ultimate source is God. If you're whining and just plain bothered about spending the one millionth Valentine's day in a row without a boo, remember that no human being can fill the void God fills. So yeah tell God to send le beau (maybe a little quicker haha), but also remember to acknowledge that he (God) is the ultimate.
There you have it: God's perfect, beautiful, eternal, unfailing, unadulterated love. Will you receive it?
Go ahead and have a great Valentine's day, if you already aren't.
Happy Valentine's day,
Love,
I
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