“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3:16-19
I was walking a trio of the ministry’s dogs – Dancer, Abigail, and Gracie – on an exquisitely sunshine-y and unseasonably warm fall day in Virginia when I heard blaring from a car next to a bunch of outdoor workers the song I knew from years ago by Journey called, “I Want to Know What Love Is.” I knew immediately the Lord had a message for me – and for others. For the thought that came to me as I heard the song was this: I know what love is. You read that right. I know what love is.
I almost never listen to music because I prefer the quiet that enables me to hear the Lord’s voice whenever He speaks to me, and that allows me to meditate on His Word and to be sensitive to His Spirit giving me a message to write or leading me to minister to someone. The extremely rare occasions I hear music, I purposely don’t listen to contemporary music because I don’t believe it honors the Lord and because it can bring to my remembrance, to my very soul, the torturous misery and miserable feelings I had for decades that for me were so strongly intertwined with the songs I once listened to. See, for decades I was exceedingly indescribably desperately seeking to be loved – and to feel loved. I believed with all my heart that love would come in the form of a man. I never found the man, but I found the love. For I found the Lord Jesus Christ.
The song I heard that day reminded me of all those years I could never get rid of the ache and the yearning and the pleading and the unfathomable need I had in me not just to be loved – but to love another. To have a relationship, and to know an intimacy that would be unparalleled. I met countless men. I had numerous relationships. I had multiple marriages. Even the love I found at times never satisfied. Never fulfilled me. I wanted to be loved. And I wanted to love. I wanted to be so close, and so bound, and so connected, and so near, and so cleave and cling to, a man, and want him to no end, and be wanted to no end, and be filled to overflowing with his love for me, and mine for him.
Oh, yes, I have found Him! The Lord!
There is NO love on this earth, not any love human, not even in the most wonderful healthy marriage, not even between adoring parent and most beloved child, not even between the sweetest grandparents and most beautiful grandchildren, not between the most doting boyfriend and girlfriend, not between the most treasured friends, not between the most compassionate pastor and congregation, not any love on this earth between humans, that compares with the most magnificent love in the universe. The love of God almighty through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is simply no love like His. And when we come to believe in Him, and to know Him, and to devote our hearts and lives to Him, and to live for Him, and to draw ever closer to Him, and Him to us, the love we experience is like no other love we will ever know. Oh, His love, so glorious! To receive it, to bask and rejoice in it, and to love the Lord ever more in return, and then, my friend, to love others with the overflowing of it as God’s Spirit ever pours into His faithful followers His unending unfathomable love, oh how humbling, oh how precious, is it to learn to love others with the greatest love that ever was, ever is, and ever will be. The Lord’s! The Lord who is love Himself! Oh, such love! Hallelujah! Oh, to know and experience and celebrate and share with others His love forevermore!