Love...

I love you.

Three simple words that mean a whole lot.

Three simple words NOBODY EVER takes lightly.

Three simple words that warm a person's heart, puts a smile on their face, and makes their day.

And this isn't just romantic love. This is love in general: love between friends, family, etc.

I was sitting on my desk after just finishing my Reading exam and I was double checking my answers when I cam across the question asking us about the two Sonnets we just read. Both present love in a different view. Then I began to wonder: what is love? What is it really?

I was brought back to November of this year when I was in Malaysia during the Renewed Experience Camp. Pastor Simon Eng was teaching us about the causes of spiritual dryness and one of the causes he gave was being married to an unbeliever, at which my friend, Jecca, asked "But what if you love the person?"

I answered "That's just your emotion."

As I thought about the word, I began to realize that love is so much more. It's not just emotion. It's not just butterflies in your stomach and a warm fuzzy feeling.

I remembered the meaning of peace. Peace is not the absence of calamity nor danger nor troubles, but it is being calm and collected and having faith that you'll see it through in the midst of calamity, danger, and troubles.

The same goes with love. Love is not just something you feel for a person when he or she does what you want, is pleasing to you, or is beautiful. When you truly love someone, you stick with them whatever their faults. You go through their goods and bads. You forgive them and comfort after they did something bad to you and they apologized. You forget their mistakes and you forget their faults.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5It is not rude, it is not self–seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. - I Corinthians 13:4-8

Nothing else defines love better than the Word. And no act better describes love than God sending His own Son to die for us on the Cross. If you just think for a moment about how awesome God's plan was of redeeming us. Even while God banished Adam and Eve, He already knew what to do. And for the thousands and thousands of years that passed God's plan slowly came into formation. Prophecies came about and talked about it.

And soon, one night, it came. Love, finally, came to us in flesh. In a manger lay the Savior of the world: the perfect expression of God's love for each and every one of us. 

The baby on the manger and the man on the cross. Two very different images with only one message: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.

We may fail at love. We may say 'I love you', but not really mean it. We may get angry, irritated, or annoyed with somebody we promised we loved. 

But though we fail, God prevails. And when God said 'I love you' to me, to you, to the whole world, one thing's for sure: He meant it. And He showed it through His Son.

This Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, let's remember God's love... and let's share it with everyone we meet!

Have a merry Christmas everybody. God bless!