The God Who Loves

The greatest commandment is to love God with all that we are and for that love to spill out into our lives toward everyone we come in contact with. The greatest commandment is love. In the coming week, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, and then next Sunday we will celebrating the beginning of Advent, the season that leads up to the Feast of the Incarnation: Christmas. And all of this is a grand reminder first of all of the love that God has for us. The love of God is manifested in the many blessings he pours all of over us all year long, and our Thanksgiving Feast is a very Christian way of marking that love and kindness that God has shown us. But all of those blessings are just the icing on the greater reality that God has given himself to us in Jesus. He has drawn near to us in our barrenness, in our famine, in our brokenness, in our confusion, in our sickness, in our hurt, and he has not just sent us a card wishing us well. He has not just sent flowers or sunshine or a meal (although he does that too), but in Jesus Christ God has come in person to find us, to touch us, to speak to us, to heal us, and to intervene in our lives to turn them around, to face the judgment on our sins, to stand in our place, and to win justice and mercy for us. All of this is to say that God welcomes you here and now with joy. You are his people, his favorite people. He rejoices over you, sings about you, he has given his only son for you, and there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And if this is the kind of love that has been bestowed upon you, if you have a Father who loves you and keeps on loving you, then respond in love, and let that love overflow. And the coming weeks are for that. If you do nothing else, love God with everything you are and let it overflow. Whether you cut turkey or eat pumpkin pies or put up a tree or decorate your home with lights or bake cookies or give and receive gifts. Do it with love. Do it, knowing that your God is all about you. He has come for you, and he will always come for you. You are the apple of his eye, his favorite. So come and confess your sins, your Father can hardly contain his excitement. He wants you to come, and he is smiling upon you now.