Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
Allow me to paint a picture for you. You sit down on the couch. Remember this detail. You survey the kitchen and living room. Spotless. The laundry is done, and the dishes are clean and neatly put away in the cabinets. All is right in the world, and the only thing missing is a little relaxation on the aforementioned couch, with your feet reclined at the perfect angle, if all goes well, ending with you dozing off in blissful comfort. Just before you embark on this journey, one of the million children living in your house asks for a glass of milk. No problem. I am but a humble servant. You fix a nice glass of cold, whole milk. After all, red cap is the only milk fit to drink. Now you remember that detail about sitting down on the couch?
It’s time for that to come into play. Your butt gently rests on its cushions that have longed for your presence. Everything is still great. You recline to the perfect angle. The scene of peace and tranquility consumes your present circumstance. This is the part of the story where you wish you could pause time in its tracks. You remember that glass of milk? It’s about to spill on the clean floor. Not yet, though. Remember you’re reclined at the perfect angle, and your eyes get heavy. You doze off. Cue the milk haphazardly falling to the floor, but not before some spills on the counter first. This milk only knows collateral damage. You see, it can’t spill just on the floor. It has to invade every clean space the law of physics will allow. Why am I telling you this? You see, love has been twisted into this emotion that we feel. However, love is a choice.
In this moment, I don’t really feel love. What I feel is what transpires when you drop a Mentos, or nine, into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke, except the Diet Coke is bottled rage and the Mentos are milk, for this illustration. It has been largely beneficial for my children that love is a choice and not a feeling. Likewise, for us, believers, it is of the greatest benefit that God has chosen to love us.
In John 17, we see Jesus praying. I want to unpack two things we see in verses 22-23: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, EVEN AS You have loved Me.”
Jesus is praying, essentially, that I want the world to know the Gospel. He wants the world to know he was SENT. He wasn’t just born because he wasn’t just human. He was not just one more human teacher. He was sent. He is the Son of God, SENT to save us and live
the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.
He then says I want you, God, to love us EVEN AS you have loved me (Jesus). If he is just a human teacher telling us how to live a good enough life to get to heaven, then God loves us to the degree that we deserve. If we live a life this good, then he loves us this much.
If we live a life that good, then He will love us that much. The gospel is this: Jesus Christ was SENT to save us by dying on the cross in our place, and the moment we believe, God loves us, not as we deserve, but as Jesus Christ deserves. EVEN AS, Jesus says in his prayer. I strive to love those kids who spill milk, EVEN AS I love those who don’t spill milk and are perfect. Why? Because I follow Christ and because of what He’s done, I am loved EVEN AS Jesus, who died, by God the Father.
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.