Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
Hallmark Christmas movies immediately come to my mind when people talk about love. A snowy little town, a big city lawyer, and a struggling small-town business. Inevitably, the big city lawyer gets snowed in at the very bed and breakfast she was sent to shut down and quickly falls in love with the innkeeper’s son. Together, they save the town and Christmas! The unlikely couple celebrates their love at their New Year’s Eve wedding, surrounded by the beloved townspeople who brought them together. It doesn’t get more romantic than that, right?
But the love we read about in today’s passage is so much greater than the Hallmark love we see displayed on the TV screen. The love in 1 Corinthians 13, agape love, is the perfect love God has for His children – a self-giving, unchanging, eternal love.
True love came to earth through Jesus, and the best way to understand this love is through His life. God sent His Son, Jesus, to the weary world because of His love for us. Only through Jesus could we be redeemed and have a restored relationship with our Father. Emmanuel, a name of Jesus, literally means "God with us." Jesus was sent so that God could dwell with His people, and this was because of His great love and desire for them to truly know Him. Jesus lived a perfect, selfless life and died a perfect, sacrificial death – for us! Jesus’ sacrificial love allows us to have a relationship with the Father and to understand and experience true, eternal love here on earth.
“Now, these three remain: Hope, faith, and love - but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
Not only is God’s love greater than any love we’ve ever known, but it’s the attribute of God that will never end! Hope and faith will no longer be necessary in heaven because we will stand face-to-face with our Father, but love will remain and endure forever! Love is the greatest of all the virtues of Advent because it captures Jesus’ entire purpose for being on earth and will continue for all eternity. God is love and will always be love.
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.