God is love

Personal Photo: I took this photo of the Wyoming sunrise while Clay and I were on our honeymoon. The hope, the truth that Sunday is coming, reminds us of God's love. Because of His love, we can begin again, we can love Him, and we can love others.

Happy Easter weekend! This time of the year is so special and so powerful, as we take time to honor Jesus's journey to the cross, the horrific sacrifice of His life, and what it means to us and our faith. The fact that the tomb of Jesus was empty is what brings such pure joy and hope to us all. Because the tomb is empty, He lives, and therefore we live too. We are forgiven, we are saved, and we can find the gift of eternal life at the base of the cross. I spoke last week about the power of forgiveness, the impact that forgiveness has on us, and how we are called to also forgive. This week, I want to take it one step further and talk about why God forgives us, why He sent His only Son for us, why we can celebrate and cling to the Lord.

We all have why's in our lives, right? Why do we go to work, why do we go to school, why we play sports, why we own pets, why we like this or that, why we believe certain things, etc. However, when we think of Easter, when we think of Jesus being betrayed for a small amount of money, we have to wonder why. Why would Judas sell Him out? Why would He go through with such a painful death? Why did it have to be this way? During Holy week I find these questions in my face, ones that I cannot shake out of my mind. I find some sort of peace with the acceptance that I will never be able to truly understand why until I get to meet Jesus face to face. The intricacies of why are challenging and elusive, but the foundation of those intricacies is spelled out in the Bible time and time again. There is no doubt that the true reason that we are saved is because God loves us. Psalm 103:8 tells us that "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." In this short verse, we get an insight as to the character of the Lord. It stands out; He is abounding in love.

John 3:16 is arguably the most famous verse from the entire Bible. And it is the most concise way to explain the foundation of Christianity: "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God loves us. That's the why. This verse provides us to us the answer to so many questions we have, the problems we face, the truth to cling to, and so on. It may seem simple when we first think about it, but the more we realize that God's love for us is the foundation of why in every single case, it becomes something much more complicated, much more than just a few simple words. 1 John 4:16 states "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." This verse explains to us that not only does God love us, but that He is love. When we think about the why's in our life, they almost always come down to the fact that we are doing it for love. We work because we love our family, we play sports because we love to, we own pets because we love them, etc. In this way, it makes the power of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross much more intense, as we can only understand love in a very limited way. The vastness of God's love for us is so expansive, so powerful, that we can only imagine it.

God's love does not destroy His law, but through His love, we find the grace to be forgiven. Jesus suffered and died, He was buried, He came to earth as a man, and the tomb is empty all because God loves us. He is love itself. In this way, we can find everything else in our faith to come easier; when we accept the love of God, we find that we trust Him, we seek Him, we find peace in Him, and so much more. 1 John 4:18 tells us that "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." From this verse we learn that we have no reason to fear, we can trust in God, trust in the empty tomb, and trust in His love. The base, the foundation of faith, of everything in life that is good, is love. And when we accept that, it makes the challenging, heartbreaking, painful times in life more bearable, knowing that God is always working in love, He is only giving us what we can handle, and He is with us always to guide us back to that Light of His.

When we consider the journey of Christ, the fact that He was taken to the lowest of the low, and then brought up to where He belonged, we can find hope that even though we might be going through challenging times, with God, we can trust that He is working for good, working for love, and that we will see the other side. No matter how close to hell we feel here on earth, the tomb is empty, God is love, and we can find eternal life through Him. Those facts, those truths of life take the instability out of our day-to-day. Romans 8:38-39 tells us that "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This verse is perfect when we consider how we might dismiss God's love for us when we are going through challenging times, we might not see it there. In this verse, we are told that no one can destroy that love, nothing can keep us from it. Just like we all have reasons, all have foundations for why we do what we do, God has reasons also, and He has not once hidden from us that His foundation is built on love.

As this weekend is Easter weekend, I wanted to focus on the love of God for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that I think many people forget that God loves us. We can focus on the world around us, the sin that overwhelms us, and so on, and through this we can lose sight, can lose our trust in God's love. Another reason I wanted to consider God's love this Easter is that because of it, we have eternal life; it is exciting! The tomb is empty! I think that often, Easter can be a time that is swept under the rug, we forget the intense emotions surrounding the holiday, and we can get caught in the rut of routine when it comes around. The reality is that we have so much to be joyous for, and since the why behind those reasons is that God loves us, we can be much more grateful. It is no doubt burdensome to try and put yourself in the shoes of Jesus during this week, and it can make us feel quite poorly. However, when we focus on the tomb being empty, that Jesus lives, we can find that undercurrent of His love once again. It is always there, always at the root of everything that happens to us, and it is most prominent during the Easter season. We are reminded that we have so much to repent for, but also that through this repentance, through our Lord and Savior, we find the gift of salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.

One final reason why I wanted to focus on love this week is because through the love of God, we have the ability to love, and are called to do so. Mark 12:30 tells us "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." I find myself asking the questions I mentioned earlier during the Easter season because I love God, I wish that Jesus did not have to die such a painful death, and I am sorry for my sins. Through this, I am reminded that even though I cannot change the way it has to be, and that I may not entirely understand it, I can love God because of it and I can love others because of it. We love because He first loved us. Ephesians 5:2 commands us to "walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." I can listen to Him, can give Him room in my life, can strive to be the best child of God possible. Easter is a season of repentance, of gratitude, of hope, and most of all, it is a time of love.

Happy Easter, my friends! The tomb is empty! He is Risen!