God is love ~ through us

"love one another"

John 13:35

So recently I find myself toolin' along in my cute little car...

That's not me; that's Hubby.  And he's not toolin', he's just sitting.  But isn't it a great looking car? 

And I've got my sunroof open, enjoying the cool of a summer morning...

That's not me; that's Awesome Girl, a few years ago.  But it's a great sunroof, isn't it?

And I've got my iPod goin'.... And can I just say, maybe not for the first time, how much I love my iPod?  iTunes is a great thing.  (No, they're not paying me anything to say that.  It's just a fact.)  I love that one minute I can be listening to something from my high school days (or before), like some classic Amy Grant, and the next, something that's new and hip and happenin', like MercyMe or Phil Wickham.  

By the by, is it hip and happenin' to say "hip and happenin'" ?  Or did I just expose my lack of hipness?

At any rate, one of those Amy Grant classics came on.  A song called "There Will Never Be Another", circa 1979.  There's a line in that song which says "there will never be another who could love me like You.  There will never be another who could hold me, mold me."  And it got me to thinking that because God is love, He is all kinds of love.  Therefore, He can both hold us ~ comforting and supporting us ~ and mold us ~ changing us and making us more like Him.

And it got me to thinking of all the different facets of God's love, a concept that I've certainly meditated on in the past.  But what struck me today is the different people in my life who are tangible examples of the many characteristics of God's love.

The fact of the matter is that no one person can be everything to us ~ a fact you've probably noticed about people in your life.  In some cases, it might have even come as a disappointment to you to discover that.  Frankly, it's unfair of us to expect anyone to be everything for us.  

But it occurred to me today that perhaps the people that God places in our lives are designed to sort of add up to Him.  You know what I mean?  For instance:

A parent loves like no one else, but that love often manifests itself as discipline.  There are a lot of people in my life who love me, but most of them would not discipline me.  But God does discipline, so He's got people in my life who love me through discipline.  "The Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in." ~ Proverbs 3:12

The Apple of my Eye loves me in a myriad of ways - friendship, patience, selflessness ~ but the way he loves me differently than anyone else, is commitment.  No one else in my life has ever stood up before witnesses and promised to love me until he or I die.  There are a few people who will love me as long as I live, but no one else has or will give me that promise.  This, too, is a manifestation of God's love.  "Great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever." ~ Psalm 117:2

Even my dog serves to love me as one of the manifestations of God's love, because she loves me unconditionally.  Now of course my family, my parents and sisters all (probably) love me no matter what.  But it's entirely possible for me to anger or hurt a family member so much that they would not want to be near me until they forgive me.  Or they might give me the silent treatment.  Not my dog.  If I accidentally step on her paw, or forget to feed her, she will hold no grudge.  She will still come when I call her, and lick me unmercifully if I let her.  In the same way, nothing I could do could ever make God stop loving me. "I have loved you with an everlasting love" ~ Jeremiah 31:3

Teachers, encouragers, wise counsel, comforters, exhorters... God has provided me with people who love me in all of these ways.  I like to think that when all this love is added together, it looks a lot like Him.  

Human, indeed.  Not as pure, not as strong, not as perfect as His love; but made in His image nonetheless.

~ "Dear friends, let us love one another, 

for love comes from God" ~

1 John 4:7