Love is one of the most interesting things ever. It’s this abstract concept that has multiple types and sensations. The Greeks used different words for different types of love; something which is unfortunately lost in the translation, but we have to make do with what we've got. There’s romantic, friendship, playful, general, longstanding, love for self, etc. These were just how the Greeks categorized love.

Let’s talk about romantic love. This is a type of love were you can look at somebody and feel your heart not in your chest, but in your throat or in your stomach or possibly both simultaneously. This physical feel of love challenges the notion of love being abstract. It seems so tangible. Once that somebody is in our cross-hairs, there’s no telling what may happen. One case might start with talking, which then leads to a phone number, and then to coffee and eventually dinner, which finally leads to Facebook official…or some form of that! Romantic love is what we tend to focus on when we hear “love.” I can’t say I understand this type of love.

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There’s also love for the family. This is some crazy love because I have one of the craziest families of them all. If you think you have me beat, I can introduce you to some of my aunts and uncles! The difference between family love and romantic love is that you can’t choose these people. No matter what happens at the family Thanksgiving, you have to come back for family Christmas! Why? Nobody knows why. We just know that mom says we have to! I can’t say I understand this type of love either...

I could go through all the types of love, but I want to talk about some of the implications of love. So to start that conversation, I want to present you with a scenario: I’m canoeing with my mom down a river. Mom is having the time of her life. She is canoeing like there’s no tomorrow. She is canoeing to the fullest! I look ahead and see a waterfall. Should I tell her that she’s going to die or should I let her have fun canoeing because she can really only canoe once? What a stupid question, right?! That question would never even be considered in that moment! Unless you have some bad history with your mom, which is none of my business. For the sake of the metaphor, just picture someone you really love and care for.

When we see our loved ones headed down a river with a waterfall at the end, there’s no cognitive thought. It’s a reaction to want to pull them out of harm’s way. The same concept applies when our loved ones are doing something they shouldn’t do. When the keys are taken away or they’re stopped from going home with that person they just met, there’s no hate in that. It’s actually quite the opposite.

God loves us in the same way. He hates to see us hurt. In fact, God hates to see us hurt so much he took care of us through the death and resurrection of His son: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” – John 3:16-17. Now that's some crazy love. Of course we still hurt. We do things we don’t want to do and don’t do the things we want to do, but we don’t have to worry about the bad things we do or the good things we forget to do being any more than guilt because we, as the believers in Christ Jesus, can lay all our guilt and shame on His cross.

Finding Love and Comfort in His Cross,

JS