“How glorious the splendor of a human heart that trusts that it is loved!” -Brennan Manning

Sometimes God’s love is overwhelming.

I wonder if we as earthly humans are even capable of fully embracing His love. Are we even built for that kind of unconditional, perfect, selfless love? Human love is different. It has conditions; it has limits. We are selfish, often thinking of our own motivations or needs, rather than first loving others.

The love that God showed us by sending His Son should send us straight to our knees, eyes overflowing with tears. There has never been, and never will be, a greater demonstration of pure love than when God sent Jesus to earth for us.

Love is purely, wholly, fully, shown to us in this: not in anything we could ever offer God, as mere sinful, broken, humans – but that He saw good in us and sacrificed His First Love – His Son – so that we could be saved and redeemed. (My translation of 1 John 4:10)

Beyond all else, the greatest of these is love. Receiving the gift of God’s love is overwhelming and more than we can often understand or handle, but it is Love. Pure, unadulterated, white as snow Love that saved us and continues to save us daily.

Love is the reason we have hope. Love prepares us for whatever may come.  Love is our source of JOY.  It is the capstone of Advent because love is the basis for all we are.

These last few days of Advent, think about the Love. The Love that came down to live among us, to save us, and redeem us back to who we were meant to be.