A VALENTINE TO DIVINE LOVE

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love, that’s the only thing that there’s just too little of….” So goes an old popular song.

The belief that love is a finite commodity has infected the world with a bullying mentality. Wounded hearts beget heart-wounders and so it goes. But what if love was not a finite force but an infinite resource to wash away all the world’s wounding? What if we knew bland indifference could be assuaged by tender attention, blunt rejection by joyful acceptance and blind malice by immense, intentional kindness?

What would it take to turn cruel disdain into gentle solicitude, abusive prejudice into generous support, knee jerk contempt into considerate respect? To nullify all earth’s angst and vileness, anger and violence, would take a dose of kindness so large that it would inundate the planet with compassion and affection, humanity and empathetic concern for the welfare of all.

Wasn’t this the promise when angels sang about peace on earth and good will toward all? Wasn’t this the promise of Emanuel, or God with us? Jesus showed us the nature of God as Love. He modeled what it looks like to love everyone and showed us a God who was omnipotent, eternal, unchanging, impartial Love. Why hasn’t this peace and love come on earth, you might ask? I think it is a vision we all have to subscribe to first, before we begin to see it. It isn’t up to the world to bring it to us; it is up to us to bring it to our world.

The God that is Love is not a big man in the sky with a beard and a white toga or even a young man on earth with long hair and a toga. Love is not something that is seen at all, but is something that is felt and expressed.

Love is a mental space, a heart-place where Jesus was, even before he was born, and where you were too. Before you ever dreamed of material existence, you belonged to a Love so vast and pure that it reached boundlessly out into the farthest reaches of the universe. The dream of birth hasn’t changed that love at all. This divine tenderness still adores you, embraces you, cherishes you, and delights in you.

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”* This is the Bible reminding you of that.

You belong to an entity who knows you outside and in and loves you with an everlasting affection. You are precious in its sight. In fact, you are as necessary to that Being as a child is to a mother. If you were not existent, Her love would have no object or manifestation. It would be empty. So eager is this Love to anticipate your needs that the Bible says, “Before they call I will answer.” Jesus said the Divine knows your needs before you even ask. Why should we not realize then, that kindness will always trump cruelty and hostility be mastered by benevolence?

Love must win because Love is eternal. It will always be with you. Love believes in you, whether you believe in it or not. Love has all the time in the world to pour itself out on the haters and deceivers and dissolve their resistance to love. Like a watchful Father, divine kindness reminds you that all the good God has is yours. Like a solicitous Mother, Love sings songs of delight that you are Her own.

When Jesus was baptized by his cousin John, this powerful love broke through the barriers of limited egos and human platitudes and rested like a dove on him. “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,”# said a voice from heaven. Jesus hadn’t yet embarked on his career to earn this high praise. It was just by virtue of being himself that he pleased and was loved by God.

This vast Source of all care can’t help but love all its creation with equal affection because it is Love, itself. When God created everything, He declared His pleasure in it—“and God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good.”+

What if we were to reciprocate that affection? What if, instead of reacting harshly to the world’s disdain and indifference, we were to turn to divine Love and tell our Maker how pleased we are with what He made? What if, instead of falling in the rut of rejection or revenge, we broke out in a burst of respect, awe, and kind attention toward God and his creation? What if we were to say we loved divine Love with an everlasting love and really meant it? It would be kind of a valentine to God. Do you think divine Love would be as pleased with that as we are to receive love?

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: … We love him, because he first loved us.”^ When fear is changed to love, nothing feels better than that. When it comes right down to it, nothing feels better than to be loved. Except maybe to be filled with love for someone or something else. I suppose it is that very kind of feeling that motivated all those praises in the book of Psalms.

The songsters who wrote the biblical psalms, and popular singers today all know the same thing: Love is what the world needs. Infinite love is pouring out on the world every day.Then it is our job to be the ones to receive it and make it manifested and spread it around.
“All you need is love, Luv. Love is all you need.”

*Song 6:3

Isa 65:24

#Matt 3:17

+ Gen 1:31

^I John 4:18, 19