Love - Christmas.

THIS WEEK was the first week of Christmas break. I know I already posted on Friday, but that was just an intro. I still have more to tell you!
I haven't even told you that my beautiful baby cousin Maya came over on Thursday evening and stayed overnight. Every time I see her she knows more words, and this time she was walking around everywhere, and begging for ice cream with her mouth open as wide as she could expand it, with her six little teeth. She's just such a delightful baby, she's a joy to everyone she meets. And I'm thankful that God put her in our family safe and healthy and sweetiful.
But back to the subject I want to tell you about. I was at my mom's cake shop the other day and I got bored, so I started looking through a Martha Stuart Living Magazine. And what do you know, Jesus hit me there, too. There was a Blackberry ad in there (of all things) and here's what it said:
"Don't just like.
LIKE is watered-dowm love.
Like is mediocre.
Like is the wishy-washy emotion of the content.
Althetes don't do it for the like of a sport.
Artists don't suffer for the like of art.
There is no I like NY T-shirt.
And Romeo didn't just like Juliet.
LOVE. Now That's powerful stuff.
Love changes things.
Upsets things.
Conquers things.
Love is at the root of everything good that has ever happened and will ever happen.
LOVE what you do."
Can you believe that was a Blackberry ad? Such a profound description of love, applied to a phone! I think whoever wrote this must have read 1 Corithians 13 before somewhere. But it's true! "Love is at the root of everything good that has ever happened and will ever happen." So I read this and I'm praying, 'Jesus, You hit me in the most unexpected places.'
Love is really awesome, isn't it, Christians? Pastor Russ likes to describe God's love this way: He is chasing us and chasing us with everything, using every way to reach us when we are headed straight for hell, and He wants so much to take us back up in His arms and keep us safe from the danger we are getting ourselves into that He has His own Son come to this earth to give us the most obvious and clear demonstration of His Love. HE loves us so very much that HE is willing to do that, because He wants us to want His company, and to turn back from where we are going and come back to Him.
Amen. Love really is great. And this really is what Christmas is about, Charlie Brown. It's about this love being given to a world that can never earn it but which needs it, and whose Creator cares enough to give it freely.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.