"Love Changes Everything"

Love is a universal language. Have you noticed how everything is about love? Especially Christmas, and just about every movie and song ever made.

We’re obsessed with love in Western civilization, especially in the US. We love our Sketchers and sunshine and money and friends and our pets and our nation. Or we hate all that, because we love something else. Narcissism, maybe. We’re all about love. It’s crazy sad how we run around looking for someone/thing to love us, something to complete or define us in a way that makes us feel special and fulfilled. Satisfied. Whole. 300 million Americans running around like chickens looking for a crumb of love.

Love is a universal language. “Everybody” knows what it feels like to fall in love, how it changes everything. How it feels, how it shifts you, the high it gives you. Being in love makes a difference in our day-to-day lives. Love changes everything, especially the course of our future.

Is it the same kind of love affair between us & God? Does it change your day-to-day life? Does it make a difference when things aren’t going well?

Ephesians 3:19 says, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.” Notice Paul says "experience," not just "know." Does your experience of love change how you relate to others? In 2 Corinthians 8:24, Paul writes, “Show them … the proof of your love.” Not of God’s love for us, but of our love for God.

The Women of Faith team wrote this: “Love is difficult to define. It doesn’t simplify matters to define love by saying that God is love, because we can’t really define him either. But think about it for a minute. God says, ‘I am God. I am love, These are my people and I love them. How have I behaved toward those I love? See, this is what love expects, how love reacts, what love is willing to do. This is love.’”

Do you know that God loves you? Does that make a difference? Is God your beloved? Do you think of your beloved and smile?