Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God; for God is love. 1 John 4:7-8.
These
Scriptures are indelibly burned into my brain compliments of Psalty, a series
of children's recordings. My now adult daughter had the full compilation and
several songs from them are available on instant replay in my head.
Recently, in an encounter with God, He asked for an accounting of my understanding of
love's definition. Immediately I remembered these verses from 1 John and I
premised my response based on the fact that God is love. Every
word that I could think of that defined love I attributed to God as a facet of
His character.
God
is good, kind, compassionate, long-suffering, patient and non-judgmental, just
for starters. In addition He is joy, peaceful, pleasant, easy-to-get-along
with, playful, funny and cheerful. God convicts and corrects without a hint of
condemnation. The more I contemplated the question the more I realized how much
I underestimated what true love and God are really like.
I
was a bit disheartened. I realized that the in breadth of my understanding of
love, I haven't understood or experienced God in the totality of any of them.
Not only do I not live in their full expression personally, but also I see how
little I comprehend them as part of God's nature. He's so much more than I can imagine.
Entering
the pool of God's love, metaphorically speaking, is like plunging into the deep
end. It's vast and can't be fathomed. Meditating on the individual words I used
to describe love revealed depths I'd not explored before. These attributes of
God run far deeper than my superficial attempts to understand and live them.
I
know God didn't design this as an exercise in frustration. This was, as it
turns out, an exploration in wonder and a chance to ponder more fully His
majesty. Trying to unpack the totality of Him as love personified revealed
layer upon layer of richness. I'm still delving deeper and there's no hint of a
bottom in sight.
There is experiential, revelatory light and life on this words! As I read, I was in the deep end of the pool with the vastness of His love completely surrounding me and extending out from me in the vastness of infinity in all directions. I am undone. Thank you.
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