Do you know what love is?
Tell me. How does it look?
Can you taste it?
Touch it?
See it?
Feel it?
Is it warm and fuzzy, or soft and so very cuddly?
Or is it a battlefield?
Ripe with landmines, hard times, ditches and dark long roads...
Full of head-on collisions and uneasy divisions...
Tell me.
When you visualize love, what exactly is is that you see?
Do you see rainbows, or unicorns and gumdrops?
Cotton-candy dreams or one of those really romantic scenes?
Or wait! Are you one of those cynics who only sees tears, pain, and various shades of hurt and shame?
Is love some crazy abstract dream that cannot POSSIBLY come true,
Or is it some long, depressing, self-destroying, never-ending perfect storm that, when it's all said and done, leaves you lonely, empty and forlorn?
Tell me. Which view is true?
Which one is real?
Is either one really righteous?
Let me tell you. Here's what I think.
Love is hope
and hurt
faithfulness
and grace
sweet
sour
Sometimes it's even a little touch-and-go, certainly not something to be done in one's OWN power.
Love is commitment
dedication
surrender
and sacrifice
Sometimes, it's even doing the SAME THING over and over til ya'll FINALLY get it right.
See. Here's what I really believe:
Love looks like God.
Love IS God.
C'mon. We all know the story.
That He sent His one-and-only
Just so we can have eternity.
We didn't deserve it and I'm sure it wasn't easy.
I'm pretty positive it wasn't sugar or spice, or for that matter, anything even close to nice.
But it was patient and kind.
And it did endure all things.
It took our shame.
It bore the pain of our rejection and our whorish affections upon itself.
As though it were his own.
Love bore the burden.
It paid the cost.
Gave up it's rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness - you know, all that stuff we're so quick to believe we're due.
And it did it just to prove how deep, how wide, how far-reaching is the Love that has been reserved for me and you.
Paid in Full.
Tetelesti.
It is finished.
That's Love.
Heaven come to earth, with only one agenda.
To save it's people from their own ignorance.
To draw us to itself and to woo us with its unshakeable, unbreakable, undeniable, un-duplicatable dedication.
All for free.
The only cost to us, to live life in its shadow.
To love from Love's heart and with Love's spirt.
To give to eachother was has been so freely given to you and me.
Love.
It looks nothing like we make it out to be.
Not all sweet.
Not all sour.
But always honest.
Always dedicated to the object of it's affection.
Always ready with Truth.
Always full of grace.
Always seeking the Good.
And never remembering the bad.
Accepting the worst, expecting the best.
Knowing that in the end, its worth the cost. Knowing that without Love's truth, we'd be absolutely and utterly lost.
Love.
God.
Jesus Christ.
The cross.
Mirrored in our own lives.
That's Love Actually.
Tell me. How does it look?
Can you taste it?
Touch it?
See it?
Feel it?
Is it warm and fuzzy, or soft and so very cuddly?
Or is it a battlefield?
Ripe with landmines, hard times, ditches and dark long roads...
Full of head-on collisions and uneasy divisions...
Tell me.
When you visualize love, what exactly is is that you see?
Do you see rainbows, or unicorns and gumdrops?
Cotton-candy dreams or one of those really romantic scenes?
Or wait! Are you one of those cynics who only sees tears, pain, and various shades of hurt and shame?
Is love some crazy abstract dream that cannot POSSIBLY come true,
Or is it some long, depressing, self-destroying, never-ending perfect storm that, when it's all said and done, leaves you lonely, empty and forlorn?
Tell me. Which view is true?
Which one is real?
Is either one really righteous?
Let me tell you. Here's what I think.
Love is hope
and hurt
faithfulness
and grace
sweet
sour
Sometimes it's even a little touch-and-go, certainly not something to be done in one's OWN power.
Love is commitment
dedication
surrender
and sacrifice
Sometimes, it's even doing the SAME THING over and over til ya'll FINALLY get it right.
See. Here's what I really believe:
Love looks like God.
Love IS God.
C'mon. We all know the story.
That He sent His one-and-only
Just so we can have eternity.
We didn't deserve it and I'm sure it wasn't easy.
I'm pretty positive it wasn't sugar or spice, or for that matter, anything even close to nice.
But it was patient and kind.
And it did endure all things.
It took our shame.
It bore the pain of our rejection and our whorish affections upon itself.
As though it were his own.
Love bore the burden.
It paid the cost.
Gave up it's rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness - you know, all that stuff we're so quick to believe we're due.
And it did it just to prove how deep, how wide, how far-reaching is the Love that has been reserved for me and you.
Paid in Full.
Tetelesti.
It is finished.
That's Love.
Heaven come to earth, with only one agenda.
To save it's people from their own ignorance.
To draw us to itself and to woo us with its unshakeable, unbreakable, undeniable, un-duplicatable dedication.
All for free.
The only cost to us, to live life in its shadow.
To love from Love's heart and with Love's spirt.
To give to eachother was has been so freely given to you and me.
Love.
It looks nothing like we make it out to be.
Not all sweet.
Not all sour.
But always honest.
Always dedicated to the object of it's affection.
Always ready with Truth.
Always full of grace.
Always seeking the Good.
And never remembering the bad.
Accepting the worst, expecting the best.
Knowing that in the end, its worth the cost. Knowing that without Love's truth, we'd be absolutely and utterly lost.
Love.
God.
Jesus Christ.
The cross.
Mirrored in our own lives.
That's Love Actually.
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