I made a book
once. Well, it was already a book, a thesaurus actually. It was a large book, until
I ripped out some pages and cut out the center of it. It's called an altered
book. I took a book already made and altered it. I painted the outside of it
gold, got some supplies from Hobby Lobby, and a week later, I had a finished
product. It was called, “…” well it didn't have a name, but on the inside cover
it asked the question, 'What is love?' I guess you could call it something
creative like, "The Love Book", yeah, very creative. It was a gift. I thought it was a great gift
myself. I spent a week on it, and the girl who got it also really liked it. But
I thought I had really done a good job of defining love through this book. Each
page had its own idea or focus with sweet, cheesy quotes and song lyrics, even
some stuff I had made up. I meant every word of it, but did I really define
what love was? Did I answer the question wholeheartedly knowing what it
actually was? I seriously doubt it; I
was 19 when I made this book. I’m sure if I took a poll today and asked
everyone to define love in one word, 9 out of 10 answers would be different. I
would hear things like; trust, sacrifice, eternal, action, perfection, God, or
Jesus. Whereas all of these answers are honest acceptable answers in the
context of a random people simply defining love, we as followers of Jesus
having experienced the greatest love of all cannot simply confine love into a
single word definition other than “God”. You see we as Christians all know that
“God is Love.” We sing it in four part harmonies, we read it all over the
bible, and sometimes we even talk about it. But do we truly know that God is
love? “Oh, yeah Jesus died for us, so He loves us!” or “God sent his Son, so He
loves us!” I know our understanding of God’s love goes much deeper than that.
But do we actually see it in everything
that He does? I believe one of the most obvious times that people begin to
forget about God’s love is during a conflict or change, especially when
something is taken away. It’s one of the hardest things to cope with when we’ve
been used to having something like an ability, freedom, possessions, or a lifestyle taken away from us.
“Everything was fine one minute, then chaos the next!” Do we remember God’s
love in these times? Do we remember His hand being at work? Do we feel
forgotten? When the Renaissance artist Michelangelo began sculpting the famous
statue of David, he started with just a block of marble. Then slowly and carefully
he began to chip away at all of the
pieces he didn’t want. He performed this process of chipping away what he
didn’t want for more than 2 years before the perfected masterpiece was
complete. When I made my altered book, I took a normal book and ripped out some
pages, added new ones, cut holes, and gave it an entirely new look and name. Do
you get it yet? When we are facing our seasons of change and conflict we are
given an opportunity to become closer to God by catching just a glimpse of his
wonderful power as he works in our lives. His love becomes so evident during
these times of need, hunger, and thirst. Why? Because he provides. As he chisels away at our imperfections to
make us into his perfect being, his grace and love fill the newly created void.
Nothing on earth, in the earth, or under the earth has the ability to fill us
like God’s love (Romans 8). I wish I could go back and rewrite my “love book”
because I’d have so many changes to make and things to add. But I know as far
as God’s gift to us, He wouldn’t change a thing. His love has already been made
perfect through the blood of his own Son whom he loved. And this beloved son of
God still was sacrificed because of God’s perfect
love for us.
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