Every day after school my grandfather let me have the
tallest stack of Oreos. He would bring me fancy pastries from the bakery, and
let me get ice cream when we went out to eat. On birthdays and Christmas,
Grandpa always gave us cash, which is strangely cool when you’re eight (or
eighteen). Once when I was older, he confessed that he never thought he would
live to see his grandchildren, and he just loved to see me smile.
I loved my grandfather’s love – he was wildly generous and never said no.
When I was young and unfamiliar with struggle and
suffering, I pictured God’s love like my grandfather’s – that He just wanted me
to smile, and so He would make my path all sunshine and rainbows.
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| Photo Credit: Flickr user Torben Hansen, Creative Commons |
If I try to understand God’s love from my own human understanding
and experience of love, I will miss it. My
love is so human – it’s often self-serving and self-protecting, usually reciprocal
and measured; my love is careful and simple.
God’s love is so much more. God doesn’t love how I think He should or how I expect
Him to – He loves according to His character, according to who He is. Certainly
God’s love is sweet and tender, gentle and patient. His love is also
furious and jealous, relentlessly seeking my holiness over my happiness; it’s
fierce and overwhelming as often as it is tender and gentle. He loves me just
as fiercely in the stormy seasons as in the rainbow-filled ones; the rain and
the sunshine are both products of His grace.
The
Bible often addresses God’s love directly: God’s love is so wide, long, deep
and high, it surpasses all knowing (Ephesians 3:18-19). He loves us even though
there is nothing about us that makes us love-worthy (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). Nothing
can separate us from His love (Romans 8:37-39). He loves us when we are still
sinners, completely unable to approach His holiness (Romans 5:8). He loves us
so much that He made a way for us to come near and have a relationship with
Him, and to live with Him eternally, through Jesus, His only Son, who paid
the debt for our sin on the cross (John 3:16)! There are verses in
Psalms that speak to the nature of God’s love: it is unfailing (13:5), it
reaches to the heavens (36:5), it is priceless (36:7), it is better than life
(63:3), His love is good (69:16), it delivers us (86:13), it stands firm (89:2)
it supports us (94:18).
In
other places, scripture speaks to God’s love descriptively, narrating stories
that show and explain His love. The prophets spoke of God’s love for Israel in
metaphors and pictures, like a bridegroom loving a bride (Isaiah), and like a
husband tenaciously loving a wayward wife (Hosea). Jesus’ love is tangible when
He heals the sick (for example, Luke 5:12-16), graces sinners with unimaginable
favor (Luke 5:27-32, Luke 7:36-50), and brings the dead back to life (Luke
7:11-17, John 11:1-44). Jesus even explained His love using parables, like the
stories of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son (Luke 15).
The
entirety of the Bible, the grand story from beginning to end, reveals God’s
love: He desires to be with us, and though we push Him aside and attempt to go
our own way, He knows we will be ultimately unfulfilled without Him. So He
provides a way back at great cost to Himself. Though we live through stormy
days, He is purifying our faith (1 Peter 1:6-7) while we wait for Him to come
and claim His bride.
God’s
love is entirely too much to be caught up in a few words, in one verse, one
story, one book. Even if we search the entirety of His Word and live one
hundred years walking with Him, we will only know of His love in part (1
Corinthians 13:12). It’s too much to be defined, nailed down, categorized,
labeled, or charted. It’s unpredictable. It’s unexpected. It’s wild and
untamed. He loves us to our benefit, He loves us sacrificially (John
3:16), He loves us knowing the whole story and our part in it (Ephesians 2:10,
Romans 8:28), He loves us too much to leave us a mess (Hosea 14:4).
God’s love is not always comfortable; it’s not always sunshine
and rainbows. Sometimes it’s gritty, and fiery and decidedly uncomfortable. But
no other love will bring us to wholeness and maturity or offer any motivation
to truly love others.
God’s love is so much greater than our love. As He shows
us His love, let’s strive to love others with love like His.
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, including humility and patience.]
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