The history of people is a search for love and acceptance that is rarely satisfied. Most struggle working out what love is and battle with receiving or giving it. A recent inquest about the death of two soldiers in Afghanistan recorded the bravery those who died by explosion trying to rescue a wounded colleague. Is that a description of love? It is much nearer the Biblical understanding than the shallowness that we see everywhere we look. Glossy magazines and papers promote the lives of the Celebrity in great detail and their triumphs and failures, (mostly) are paraded as some sort of warped model that the rest of us should aspire to. These displays of love are the strutting of peacocks showing of their trophy partners and how sad to see failures of relationships argued as an accomplishment!

The popular culture argues that love equals sex and that if you are not having it regularly then you are defined as knowing nothing about love! What superficial thinking that is but it explains the emptiness of life for many as they search in desert places for love and acceptance. True love is sacrificial. It gives without return and is not a response to someone else’s care. It knows no limit or limitations. The Bible puts it like this in Romans chapter five and verse eight; God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

God’s love is not dependent on our goodness or our love for him. The Bible and our own heart remind us that we are sinners and Godless breakers of his law. In other words we don’t want God in our lives. Oh we may enjoy an occasional visit but we certainly won’t accept him moving into our lives to manage it the way he wants to! Normally enemies are destroyed but God’s approach to his enemies was to send Christ to die on the cross and win them over with love.

You may feel lonely and totally unloved? Perhaps you grew up in a family without any real love being shown to you; it may be that your parents disowned and rejected you. It could be that you are trapped in a relationship of hate and isolation. We bring these experiences with us as we contemplate God and wonder if he is any different? He is and the death of Christ proves it! The Old Testament puts it wonderfully and it leaves a question for us to answer. Have you ever experienced this intensity of love?

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine…you are precious and honoured in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.