Original Published Date: February 7, 2018
….all you need. Or so the song says.
But is it really? Because in this place of fragile hearts colliding with chaotic brokenness, sometimes it feels like we need a whole lot more than the love those songs are promising. We need more than sweet sentiment and romantic gestures and flowers. They fail us in the face of the realities our lives meet- Divorce, addiction, sin, abuse, poverty, injustice, failure, rejection. No box of chocolates or butterflies in the stomach can make these okay.
So maybe we need something else.
Something fierce and wild to protect and keep us safe from all the dangers, even the ones we create. Or something so steady and solid it could settle our worried souls from the roller coaster of unknowns and uncertainty. Or maybe we just need a glimpse of breath taking beauty to help lift our spirits out of the muddy mess we see all around us.
Or maybe we just need Someone.
Because when those hard and heavy things happen, we really need safety and steadfastness and beauty all together. And maybe they can’t be found the way we shop for the newest and coolest at Target. Maybe they are best discovered as parts of a whole. That there is One who is so completely sufficient He carries all those and more facets of this thing called Love within Himself. Maybe he cannot really describes himself outside of the context of Love because He is, in fact, Love.
He says “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
He proclaims “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
He promises “I will fill you with an inexpressible and glorious joy”
He whispers “I laid down my life because I considered you worthy, when you didn’t even care I existed.”
His love is so strong it compelled him to leave actual paradise and join us in the chaos and broken and it is so strong it held him to a cross. To protect us from the pain and suffering we created with our sin, he took the pain and suffering on himself. He is the hero every story is echoing- the one whose sacrifice is so beautiful it changes us as we see it.
All you need is Love. Love is a three letter word.
God is Love.