Who or what is your first love? If we were to ask this very simple question of God Himself the answer would be crystal clear… His first love are those who are made in His image… mankind… men and women… boys and girls… the elderly… the middle aged… the young adult… students… kids… and even the unborn. We are His first love. That’s cool! That’s stunning! That’s profound!
Now let’s be crystal clear – we don’t actually deserve His love. We have not earned it. It is a gift that has been given to us. It is offered without strings attached. But like all lovers, God desires to have the circle completed by us learning to love Him also. He desires to have us embrace and understand His love for us, to the degree that our hearts are turned toward Him and then toward those whom He has loved from the beginning… our neighbors.
Out of the experience of being loved we learn to do the same, but like almost everything in life, we need love to be modeled for us. We need to see it in action. We need to experience it. Then we can reflect it. Then we can repeat it. Then we can demonstrate it.
Christmas is a time of preparing our hearts for the importance of the coming of Messiah, the lover of our souls. He came to be among us at the calling of our hearts, as a baby in all of His humanity, at the grieving of our hearts as a sacrificial martyr, absorbing the decadence of all mankind, at the jubilation of our hearts as a victorious Savior in all of His divinity and at the amazement of our hearts as a conquering King in all of His majesty at some future and perfect time.
This Christmas, we celebrate every one of the dimensions of His coming. We celebrate with great fondness at His birth. We celebrate with great sadness at His atoning death. We celebrate with great excitement at His resurrection from the dead. We celebrate with great anticipation of His promised second coming.
Join together in preparing your heart in anticipation of God’s love revealed, demonstrated, celebrated and embraced.
Your bro,
Kevin