The Parallels to Love

Some of my favorite memories from when I was about 6 or 7 was singing with my dad in our basement. He instilled in me a love for music and singing. I can remember him pulling out his guitar and teaching me different songs. To this day, if I hear a worship song I sang with him, it brings tears to my eyes. Now, my dad is in no way perfect, and as I got older I began to see the love leave his eyes and voice. I cling to the childhood memories as I faced the inevitable reality of growing up.

The heaviness of feeling abandoned brought to light another love that only gained in power the more attention I gave to it. It had always been there, but had been filtered through the love of my father: the love of my Abba Daddy. When I lost my father's love, there was something hanging on to me, keeping my head above water as my life changed drastically.

I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but the love your daddy has for you can, and generally does, determine how you view the love of God.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love is:
Patient
Kind
Not envious
Not boastful
Not proud
Not rude
Not self-seeking
Not easily angered
Keeps no record of wrongs
Does not delight in evil
Rejoices with the truth
Always protects
Always trusts
Always hopes
Always perseveres
Never fails.

That love, biblical love, sounds so nice, doesn't it? I remember my dad telling me he loved me "unconditionally." His love would never fail me. As I got older and learned that word didn't mean what I thought it meant, my idea of love was skewed. Love became conditional to me. I felt like "people would only love me if..." It altered my behavior so when I disappointed someone, I would feel sick, because I thought they couldn't love me. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that's not love. It's so incredibly tough to grasp what real love is - especially in today's society. Maybe the fact that God's love is unconditional is something you, like me, struggle with on a daily basis? Maybe someone has told you they love you unconditionally, but in the end, you find out it was conditional? There are so many verses, I can't choose just one!
Proverbs 20:6 says, "Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?"
Psalms is scattered with evidence of his unfailing love. In Psalm 13, the author was severely struggling with life. It was weighing him down. But the one thing he could count on was God's unfailing love.
Isaiah 54:10 tells us that it doesn't matter what we do: "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you."
God's love for me - for YOU - is unending. In Ephesians 3:17-19, Paul is praying that we "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." His love is that filling and that unending!!
I pray for you the same as Paul prayed for Ephesus and every Christian today: that you could grasp the unending love God has for you - seriously, no matter what you do, He'll never stop loving you.