For God so loved the world,
The first reason these words are so precious is because they start with a desire that was towards you and me. This desire was not simply words without substance, they were words of great significance and incredible cost. Pause for a moment to think, God, the creator of the universe wrote that He loved the world, He loved and does love you and me. I think about the endless number of love songs written and the feelings and emotions these bring to many upon remembering them or hearing them, yet to think that the greatest being in the world speaks to us and says I love you! Could this be? Could it be that so many have this desire to be loved by God that we are looking to fulfil that desire by following material things only to find dependence upon them so costly and so empty that hopelessness follows? That was certainly my experience.
I was fortunate enough that as a young child I was faced with a disease that would leave me with much agony and pain, and throughout my teens give me little reason for hope. Some might wonder why I say “fortunate”, I say it because many have a desire to do well at school or uni, travel and get a good job yet for me my desire was simple; just survive. I say fortunate because my desire for life like so many was a struggle and caused me to look for something that would make a lasting difference. I didn’t find lasting pleasure in anything I tried, the desire for something that lasted was all I wanted. And yet I count myself fortunate because I had to face the emptiness of life at a young age. I believe that because we seek for meaning in our lives there must be a place of ultimate meaning. I came to trust these words of Love at the age of 19 (you can read my full story here) because no other meaning no other “Love” would do.
“the desire for something that lasted was all I wanted”
Some would say that my experience is good for me! It works for you well done! I humbly ask you to look for a people a nation that doesn’t have a desire for more. Take the phrase “Always was, Always Will be” a statement referring to Aboriginal ownership of land, and yet I ask what does it matter? I know it matters for our people deeply, because for many it is their desire, it is their why. In a similar way, even a scientist has this desire for more. Why bother with beginnings? What does it matter how it started or who was here first? We are here, we can do science in today’s world, we can make cutting edge technological discoveries that will change tomorrow without any thought of the past. Yet for all these 2 examples, I only make the point that every people and people group have a desire for more than the present day.
“every people and people group has a desire for more than the present day”
And yet as I consider the desire that we have, I reflect on these words of great meaning that God has a desire as well. God’s desire was towards me and you! Could it be that God would desire to love us? Love you and me? Yet this desire isn’t like we know it because it isn’t based upon what we are it is based upon what we are not. You may say I have no desire to know anything of this desire God has, and yet it is even then that God’s desire is still towards us! What kind words, what a kind person to still have a desire toward us even when we don’t want to know about it. What is more amazing is that we are told that this love was not cheap talk like we are so used to, these are words that came with action. They came with the gift of Jesus Christ coming to earth to demonstrate that love.
Do you desire for more than the present day offers you? Do you have a longing to have something more, something that will last? Then these words of love are for you!
Do you have a longing to have something more?