Welcome to the second Sunday of advent. (See last week’s post if you need to catch up.) In most liturgical churches and many others, the second of four advent candles will be lit today. Last week’s candle was the candle of hope. Today’s candle is the candle of preparation. During this week, as we prepare for Christ’s coming, we are encouraged to focus on love. As with last week’s discussion on the true definition of hope, we need to be careful about how we understand the word love. In our society, love is most often associated with a warm, fuzzy feeling toward something. We say we love ice cream, or our cars, or our favorite football team. In these cases, there are characteristics of the object of our love that motivate our positive feelings toward them which we call love. So when the car we initially love is old, dented, breaking down, and unreliable, we no longer love it. Too often, that is how we love people in our society also. As long as they are attractive, pleasant, and treating us right, then we love them. But as soon as it is “not working for me” anymore, we withdraw our love.
Thankfully, that is not God’s kind of love. The Bible tells us that God loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). It is hard for us to accept that there is nothing about us that motivates God’s love for us. In fact, from God’s perspective, our very best attempts to be good are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) So what motivates God’s love for us? God does! God is love. (1 John 4:8) God’s love for us flows out of His character. It is an act of His will, not His feelings. He chooses to love us not because of who we are, but because of who He is. Hallelujah!
So how can this week’s focus on love enrich our advent celebration? Jesus’ coming to earth as a baby on that first Christmas was God’s love in action. That’s what true love does. It acts lovingly. And when we remember why Jesus came, that the son of God came to die in our place so we can live with Him forever in heaven, then we are overwhelmed by the infinite depth of God’s love for us. So this week, let’s do our best to live in God’s love for us. Let’s accept it, rest in it, and most important of all, share it with all those around us – even those who may not be easy to love at the moment. In doing that, we will be glorifying God and preparing in the best way possible for His coming.
GBU – (John 13:35)
