Advent Week 4 - Love
If there is one thing that we all know deep down, it is that we were made for love. We all spend our lives searching for it, trying to find another person who will truly see us and love us for what they see. Yet we are also terrified of the opposite, that another person will truly see us and reject us for what they see.
For many people their entire life is spent dangling between these two truths in a twisted dance, trying to show just enough of the nice parts of who they are to attract someone else but keep the dirty parts of their soul locked away. It is exhausting, and many people never truly find love, because they are simply looking for it in the wrong place.
You were made for love, but there is only One who truly sees you for who you are and loves you, because He created you.
King David told us this truth in Psalm 139:
“Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways.”
Psalm 139:1–3
The Lord sees you and knows you fully. He created your inward parts, He knit you together in your mother’s womb. He saw you fully when you were formless, He knew everything about every single day of your life before you were even born. He sees and knows everything you are.
What do we do with this truth? How do we respond knowing that we are stripped bare before a God who sees everything about us, from our wicked thoughts to our prideful rebellious lives? If we are honest with ourselves, every single one of us is afraid that He who sees us truly will look upon us and turn away. Reject us.
But He doesn’t. Instead He has this to say to us:
“Because you are precious in My sight and honored, and I love you, I will give people in exchange for you and nations instead of your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north: Give them up! and to the south: Do not hold them back! Bring My sons from far away, and My daughters from the ends of the earth — everyone called by My name and created for My glory. I have formed him; indeed, I have made him.””
Isaiah 43:4–7
You are precious in His sight. He sees you as honored and cherished. He loves you. He loves you so much that He was willing to trade Himself for you. He made you so He could show you His love. What an incredible truth! And He wasn’t, and isn’t, content to leave you alone to suffer alone looking for love in the wrong places. He came as a man, gave Himself for you to save you, and brings you into His family to love you eternally. 1 John 4:9-10 says:
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:9–10
This season of Advent is a celebration of Jesus Christ being born as a human to show us His love, to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we might live through Him, and live eternally in His love.
Church, let us worship Him in awe of His perfect love for us!
