God is love.
God is love. Truths don’t get any simpler or more packed with significance. As the defining characteristic of the Creator, love is the basis for everything that exists. Within all the turmoil and pain, dig down far enough and you’ll discover love. I believe “God is love” to be the three most important words ever written. They are the reason for hope.
Simple truths are not easy truths; the idea that God is love can be difficult to digest. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the formula means. The difficulty is genuine, because God and love are irreducible terms. With both, we reach a point where knowledge ends and we are left wordless. There’s a genuine difference between counting the stars and stepping into infinity, a state that defies mathematics and imagination. God and love belong to infinity.
The infinite God of infinite love exists outside of time. Love is the intention before the universe, whose unfolding creates time. What is timeless exists in the present moment, which is where love also is found. As a Buddhist might say, love is not past or future, but now. As a Christian might say, so is God.
Absolute love is foreign to our own love experiences, which is why we find it hard to believe. Much that we call love isn’t. Much that is love appears unreasonable. We are creations of love who don’t understand the source for our lives. At the same time, the great sorrow found in life results from our failure to love.
God as love is the power animating the universe and the reason creation produces life. The existence of life is an act of love. As a living being, you are loved Absolutely.
Love is relational, and so is God. The relational within God is the source of life. The reciprocal nature of relationships is why God and life never exist in a state of stasis. Change is eternal. Whatever stability we find in our world is simply a matter of perspective.
Most importantly, a God of love is personal. God relates. As relational, love is responsive, as is all of life. Information is exchanged, and the exchange offers the opportunity for growth, knowledge, and intimacy. Intimacy between the Creator and the created, the unfolding of humanity, is the aim of love.
God’s love can be threatening, since Absolute love makes clear our lack of it. It’s a daily realization that we avoid recognizing. As much as people talk about love, it’s not something most are eager to improve. Love, like God, is selfless, but who are we without a self? It’s why we’re afraid of love.
To be afraid of love is to be afraid of God. The primal fear is not of death. Our fear of death is found in our fear of love. We flee from infinity into an abyss.
But the God who is love is patient.
Image of hands by wal_172619 from Pixabay
Image of woman by Marc Pascual from Pixabay
Image of patience by Annette from Pixabay
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