A Word from the Women's Bible Study
By Dar Stucke
This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another. 1 John 4: 9-11
This is the second week of Advent and we have lit the second candle, the candle of LOVE. It reminds us that Jesus was sent to us out of God’s great LOVE for us.
What good is a car that never sees the road? Is a fancy state-of-the-art jet plane that never flies any better than a paper airplane that has sliced through open air? Would the most priceless artifacts in a museum be on display if they had never been used to do something?
In the forward to the book LOVE DOES, Donald Miller wrote, “We don’t like to put hands and feet on love. When love is a theory, it’s safe, it’s free of risk. But love only in the brain changes nothing.” A car or airplane is safer parked, but what good is it? Each is created for motion and transport—for ACTION. Love is the same. For love in hands and feet changes everything.
God put hands and feet on His love. He took action. He poured out love in and through the gift of His Son to reach a broken and fallen creation: US. And He calls us to do the same, as He did toward people. The Christmas season can threaten to choke out our love with its busyness and expectations. But it can also provide natural opportunities to reach out to others with love in action. Let’s look for and choose life-giving, love-expressing opportunities during these days. Let’s allow God’s love to move us to action.
Dear God: Let the reality that at Christmas your love came crashing into our world, permeate my life this week. Let me experience the depth of your love and let that love overflow to others. In Jesus name, Amen