Well friends, its February, so over the next couple of weeks I want to talk to you about love. Love is a beautiful thing when done in the right context. The problem is most people don’t truly understand the full scope of what love looks like. For instance, when I was a boy I loved anything on two wheels, if it had a motor on it, I loved it even more. Every time I saw a motorcycle pass us while traveling in the car, I would say, “Did you see that motorcycle, I love it,” or an old hotrod, “Shannon, did you see that car, I love it,” with as much excitement in my voice as you can imagine from a boy. My step dad would always say, “Son, you can’t love something that can’t love you.” I didn’t really understand that when I was a boy, but today, I get it!

Love is something real, something you can experience and something that can be reciprocated by another living being. Let me give a for instance. With family, you love them, through thick or thin, right or wrong, you love them! Why? Because love is what a family does! You might get upset at a bad decision they’ve made, you might not talk to them for a while, but you never stop loving! It’s unconditional and unchanging!

That’s how our Heavenly Father approaches love! God’s love is unconditional, unchanging, and provable. Paul wrote to the church in Rome to explain this concept. They didn’t fully grasp God’s love, so Paul explained it in a way that made sense. He told them about sin that came through Adam and how we are all sinners separated from God as a result of that one act of disobedience. Then Paul painted them a picture of God’s love by saying, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” WOW! “Christ died for me?” The answer is an unequivocal and astounding YES! So what do you do, well that’s easy, you love God while remembering that He first loved you!

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.”   1 John 4:17-19