God kind of Love

Is it possible to say that because God is Love, and knows best how to Love, that "Love and Loving" belong to Him? As in, since it is so part of who He is, flowing through His nature and being, that the very action is His right? It is only through the LOVINGNESS of God that we are allowed to take part in this beautiful encounter . So in a sense, when we love people we are representing God. We embody God in the way we love people. 

When we have been loved right, it is easier to see God as a Loving Being. But when we have been loved wrong (which is not really love at all) it almost becomes inevitable for us not to blame God. It is no wonder that when we dilute or disgust love, it often causes us to turn away from God. Love is so interconnected to God, that even the perversion of love is unfortunately reflected back onto Him in our weak efforts to try and make sense of pain and redeem any wrong done to us or through us… the worst kind of evil is the dressed up in goodness and love kind. Manipulation is a mask that can only be worn in the dark, but the God kind of Love always supplies light and life…

If Loving is His, and I choose to extend love, then I must love like Him… right?

This can be done in the way I word things, the way I think about people, the way I look at people, the way I talk (or choose not to talk) about people, the way I smile at people, the way I treat people, the way I make people feel… Just as there is so much more to loving than simply saying the words or trying to look like we're doing the right love things, so is there more to God than we often realise or acknowledge… there is so much more to Him than we give Him credit for… 

If Love (the action) were a person what would you think about them and how would you respond to them? 

What if it is true, like really true not just kind of true, that God is in fact LOVE; And not just love in the way we're used to or think we know, but Love in its purest form, Love that we will never fully grasp or make clear sense of, Love from the source… Would that change the way you think about God? Even just a little? Why is it that the one thing we crave and desire most, when offered to us, is the hardest thing to truly accept and live inconsistently? 

ocean.droplets

When I look at the ocean, I see it as a timeline of Life. 

Either of an individual on their journey,

or of a community with vast arrays of seasoned lives.

The waves represent youth

It's where baby steps are taken and initial choices made

to play

to splash

to tip-toe in

They are unpredictable like teenage mood-swings

sometimes calm

other times engulfing

unsure and sure all at the same time

Funny how when it comes to the ocean, all its layers are considered beautiful and loved. 

What if this was more so for people?

As we sail into the distance,

there are no playful splashes or the shallow boundaries of the sand

it is the age of depth,

wisdom

mystery

danger

discovery

consistency

trust

responsibility

stillness and strength

maturity

The farther we go with the ocean, the more it overwhelms us.

Yet sheds perspective on the vastness of the work of God's hands.

Rather than staying standing on the shore looking out into the horizon and dreaming about what lies beyond,

I want to venture out and travel to the distance 

discovering the smallness (yet uniqueness) of me compared to the bigness of my God.

Trying to grasp all that I can from and about the Almighty.

Going where He's gone,

Following when He calls,

Always trusting, when I cannot see the land.

Isn't it safer to stay where the water hits the sand? 

Perhaps,

but the most peculiar sea-creatures aren't found there.

We can't have one without the other

The depth without the waves

The fun without the wisdom

it's a continual journey of discovery and change

Whilst bringing along the laughter

I like to think of the Ocean as being alive

always moving

always reflecting

contained by gazillions of tiny droplets,

unified,

projecting one thing,

the Ocean

One without the other, we cannot have

For there would be no ocean

or life to be shared

If the droplets represent individual lives,

Lets say The Ocean represents LOVE

Love as in,

Relationships

Friendships

Family

Love as in LIFE

Truth

Reality

Eternity

Love. Life. Truth.

One and the same

Droplets. Ocean

People. Life

waves. depths.

Love. God

God Loves People

Together it's the Ocean

Alone, it'll be an evaporated drop of water

This was random, unreliable, and all over the place… I know… and I feel I'm still in the "waves" season of life anyway, so I have no real idea what its like out there...but just remember one thing:

I'm pretty sure Life and Love involve Risk and Trust…