Come Again

I know, I know, I already wrote a blog on Valentine's Day. I'm sure there's some rule somewhere made by someone that I can't do it twice, but who cares? Call 'em up and report me, I can take it! 

Anyways. 

It's not just Valentine's Day that bombards us with love constantly. I constantly see cute photographs and movies of love-stories and couples on the internet and in other media. There are pictures and quotes about romantic love and deep friendships, parental love, and the love from pets. Affection, love, and general happiness with other humans (and cute animals) is everywhere. They talk about love, but love that barely scratches the surface of the endless, beautiful, and perfect true love story. We all want love. We're all attracted to the idea of being cherished by someone. It's a wonderful feeling, being wanted. But you always have to do something in return. Love never seems to truly be free. Failures, mistakes, they can only happen so many times before you stop loving someone, or, worse, they stop loving you. Or maybe there's no failure, just change.

Either way, life happens. People change, people fail, people grow apart. It's life, this movement from one season of life to the next, but that makes it no less painful and no more desirable. This realization that people will, at some point or another, always fail in some way, big or small, is no happy thought. It's not optimistic or hopeful, it's actually quite saddening. I know, this isn't sounding super happy, cheerful, lovey, or Valentine's Day-ish. But hold on a few more moments, I'm almost to the happy parts! There's a caveat, a "but," an exception to the rule. It's like the Paramore song, Only Exception, people always fail, but...

And here we get to the greatest love story ever told. This story is so beautiful, so perfect, so beyond any human love, that sometimes I just cry when I think about it. Imagine a love that was so deep nothing could ever break it. That no matter how many times you messed up, cheated, argued with, spoke unkindly to, and hurt, they would never cease to care about you, never cease to love you, and never cease to want you. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want that kind of love, but it sounds too good to be true. It's too great, too perfect, too good to be human. Here's the great thing, though: it's real love, it's true love, it's perfect love, it's beautiful love, and it's human love. But it's not just human love. Here is the greatest love story ever told: 

You have been loved as long as you have ever been alive, and before that. Before your parents had even met, you were loved. Before your grandparents had even met, you were loved. 2,000 years ago, someone gave you the greatest gift of love, a life, laid down for you, out of eternal love. Jesus. Son of God, mighty and powerful and righteous, He was in Heaven. He was in perfection, one with His Father, in a place of bliss and glory. He came to earth though, for you, for me. And He became a human and lived here, with the dirt, the sin, the hate, the despair. He came because those things exist, He came because we need Him, because we crave love. And then He died. But He didn't just die. 

Imagine the person you love more than anyone in the world. Now imagine that they are angry with you. Not only angry, though, that all of their wrath and retribution for a wrong committed is against you. Imagine that you've never been apart from this person, there is so much love that they are an integral part of you, and now they're gone. You are separated, you are utterly alone, with the weight of that person's wrath upon your shoulders. 

That's what Jesus went through. He and God had never been apart. Their bond of love and Fatherhood and one-ness is beyond anything we can ever imagine. And when Jesus took all of our sins on Him, He had to take on the punishment for those sins. He didn't just die, He was completely alone, in so much psychological pain that He begged God to let there be another way for Him to save us, this way was so painful. It was the only way. The only way to save us from the retribution of sin - death - was to take the punishment for our sins, be separated for God, and take His wrath. So Jesus did it. He went through more pain than any of us can ever imagine or understand...out of love. No greater love story ever told, than that of Jesus for you, for me, for everyone. Just believe it, just accept the love, because it's the most beautiful and perfect gift of love imaginable. 

And it's so perfect. See there's nothing we can ever do to make Him stop loving us! No matter how many times we mess up or leave Him, tell Him we don't care through our actions or words, He never leaves. Walking alongside, carrying and picking us up when we stumble and fall, He is always by our side, always loving us, always whispering in our ears, the greatest love story ever told.