The God of Love in 3-D
I was struck by something today.While working on some homework in the crowded Koine coffeehouse on the DTS campus, I was listening to John Mark McMillan's album The Medicine. The final song on the album is one that I have been doing frequently in worship, How He Loves. Although repetition can be the key to learning, it can also be the enemy of profundity. Every night Lauren and I sing "Jesus Loves Me" to our son before he goes to bed. A common mantra in our church is "Jesus loves us." No doubt, we worship a God of love. But how often do I actually feel it? How often do I affirm the two dimensional phrase "Jesus loves me" and also experience it in 3-D?Knowing God is a God of love is one thing. Feeling it is something completely different. Today I was struck by how little I let myself feel that God is a God of love.My wife called me earlier to give me an update on our son. Apparently today he learned how to take his diaper off during nap time. This is one of the many little fears that new parents have. We know it will happen, but we still dread the day. As my wife walked into his room and saw what had happened, she walked right up to Kyler's half naked little body without hesitation, picked him up and cleaned him. She didn't close the door and hope he would some how learn how to put his diaper back on. She didn't put newspaper over him. She didn't shame him and yell at him. She gently brought him into her arms, braving pee, poop, and any and all of the other disgusting things our cute baby creates, and showed him love.We tell Kyler that we love him all the time, but today Lauren got the opportunity to show him that love in 3-D. He may not have fully understood it, but in his own way, he felt loved. Just like Lauren entered the mess of a diaper-less nap time, Jesus entered into the mess of our world. He didn't close the door. He didn't try to cover us up. He didn't shame us. He just loved us.In those moments when I feel distant from the love of God I affirm, I think of Jesus. The God of love is not merely a theological proposition. It is not a tagline in a song, or a meaningless platitude we tell ourselves to assuage the pain of a fallen world. The God of love is 3-D in Jesus. Through him we can feel it, experience it, and know it beyond words.Do you sometimes have a hard time feeling God's love? What helps you?
““For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16–17 ESV)