The greatest love story in the world begins with…And God said, Let there be…The God of all creation – not just the God of this universe, but the God of all universes – had a plan that included me and you! As He spoke the word that came to be – even as He spoke it – His work was not complete until He fashioned Adam and Eve. Even though I’ve come up through this journey with the King James Version, I promise you if you want lights and action, try reading Genesis 1 in the Message Bible – take a look:
11-13 God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts,,,
14-15 God spoke: “Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven’s sky!
Separate Day from Night.
Mark seasons and days and years,
Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth.”
And there it was.
Let Hollywood top that action! And this same magnificent God when he thought about man – not just thought about him, fashioned him with the same infinite precision that He created everything else –
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me! Psalm 139: 13-18 NLT
What’s love got to do with it? Every child taking catechism knows the answer to that. What is God? God is a Spirit. Who is God? God is LOVE!
Yes, love had everything to do with us, from eternity past to eternity present – love shaped our being, watched over our entrance, counted all our days, and with and every one longs for only one thing – for His greatest creation to make a decision to come and have fellowship with Him.
Yes, He could have made us to be robots that would automatically praise and worship Him upon command, even as the sun rises each day in the east and sets in the west. But this wise God of ours chose to have a people who had free will – free to choose to love Him back – or not…
And most of us do turn away from this love – for as long as can – trying to find love in all the wrong places – until one day we run out of energy and we realize that there is no one who can satisfy the longing of our soul – and we finally accept the greatest love of all!
What’s Love Got to do with It? Let’ remind ourselves what the Bible says:
16-18″This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. John 3: 16-18 MSG
More on Love – tomorrow.
Maria