Ain't Love Grand

To love or not to love, that is the question?

Me and My Dad, a loving and faithful man of God.

Love is such an all encompassing word, emotion, feeling and choice. Love, very well, might be the beginning. However, love may also be the end. Love is beyond a doubt a decision and a choice that one must make and choose every single day, maybe even several times a day.

It says in the Bible that God is love. He created us to love us, and witness and feel love. He longed to express love to us through His majestic creation filled with creatures and wonder and amazement. The world and creation is a huge gift that God wanted to give to all of us. Creation is majestic and awe inspiring.

Each and every one of us, has a beginning. A starting point for when, where, and why we were created. We all have the same answer for how. However, the how could have come from the initiation of love or from the place of an unwilling participant. That unwilling participant is usually the woman.

The greatest love story of our Savior, Jesus Christ, began with a young and innocent Mary. She was not married when she became with child. She was a young teenager, between 12 and 15 years old. The consequences Mary faced as an unwed pregnant woman was something I would not wish on anyone that I loved. Mary had to choose to be obedient, and her faith was a faith that was founded in the deepest love for God. She did not crumble or fall apart. Instead, her faith allowed her to continue to choose love, and perseverance and to walk obediently.

We enter this world to parents, not of our choice. They are assigned to us. As a child, we have an innate desire to please our parents. However, we are formed into the person we are intended to be with how we are raised. The gift of loving parents is not one that could ever be overlooked. This world can be a harsh place to face without the incorporation of a loving environment to grow and thrive. However, like Mary, many who have a foundation of faith in God or learn of His love at some point in their lives, can become someone whose story will be heard throughout the world. Humans love a story of triumph. Mary lived an amazing and document worthy life.

Mary was the Mother of love. She was the giver of life to Jesus Christ, who was born, walked this earth, and died for us. He dedicated His life to teaching others about love. The prophets who lived hundreds of years prior to His birth, spoke of His life and gave details of whom He would come from. He would come from the direct descendent of King David and Abraham, and He did.

Elizabeth was the Mother of John the Baptist. She was thought to be barren before she miraculously conceived. She was Mary's cousin, and both women were used to have miraculously births to men who would live lives that would be talked about thousands of years after their lives ended. John the Baptist, spoke of Jesus, prior to having met Him. He declared that there was one coming after Him, whom he was not worthy to untie His sandals. He proclaimed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and the Son of God, who would take away the sins of the world.

Jesus was the promised Messiah. Jesus was the example of unconditional love and sacrificial love. Jesus exemplified agape love, the very essence of God's nature. Jesus' divine love was witnessed through His sacrifice of His life; offering forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life. Jesus chose to love us all the way to the end of His life, when he hung on a cross for each and every one of us who are sinners. He loved us to the end of His life. After He died, He was brought back to life and was resurrected to be with God in heaven. Jesus is with God, our loving Creator. He still loves us, and longs for us to believe in His life and purpose. His love is grand!

A brave and faithful woman bore life to Jesus, not of her choice, but God's choice. Mary was faithful, and is remembered to this day for her choice to love and be faithful in her lifetime. We do not always get to choose the paths our lives will take. We don't get to choose the parents we are gifted. However, if you are faithful to God, He may use your life to do amazing things that will honor your consistent choice to love and be obedient to Him in this world and the one to come.

Will you make the choice,

over and over and over again,

to love others

the way Jesus loved

throughout His lifetime?

"Beloved, let us love one another,

for love is of God;

and everyone who loves

is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love

does not know God,

for God is love."

-1 John 4:8-9