Like many people, I love a good romantic comedy. Mostly because you can suspend disbelief and watch love bloom, grow, get funny, and end in a happily ever after. I believe God gave me my own happily ever after in my loving, charming, charismatic, and strong husband. However, I cannot say it was love at first sight. The butterflies people describe did not arrive until his personality was revealed to me. Though he is very easy on the eyes.
There is something everlasting about a love that comes from peeling back layers of substance. A falling in love that does not end but just keeps growing. Just when you think you cannot love any more, you hit a new level and it shows. It changes you as a person. It becomes apparent in the way you speak and write about that person.
My reading of the Gospel of John this time around made me see John’s love for our Lord in a completely new way. Not that the other apostles did not express their love for Jesus, but John’s writing helped me create a narrative that revealed and peeled back the layers, helping me grow in love with our one true God.
John’s Gospel feels like a literary masterpiece of love. His opening lines are a thesis statement for the entire Gospel. Jesus was, is, and will be. And then there is the build up through the poetic way in which Nathanael was drawn into ministry, mysterious and yet startlingly clear. I wish I loved Jesus as much as John did. My hope is that it will grow someday. Perhaps what one needs is a heart so pure that love for Jesus simply abounds.
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
-1 John 4:19
My guess is that John lived the way he loved. When someone loves Jesus that deeply, they are simply not going to want to disobey, sin, or hurt the Author of their life. I catch myself doing something or saying something that is bound to make the One who died for me groan. I do not want to. My hope is that as my love grows, the frequency of those groans will grow shorter and shorter.
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.”
-Titus 2:11-12
So here is to falling deeply in love, the kind of fall that takes your breath away, like falling through the Swiss Alps where the journey never ends and the view just keeps getting more and more spectacular. I pray you fall too. God bless you.
Dear God,
Thank You for the Word that became flesh. Thank You for granting me the privilege of falling in love with You. Please help me translate my love for You into thoughts, words, and deeds that show love for others. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
