“We love because he first loved us”  1st John 4:19

   Since God is eternal and God is love, love has been around a long time, in fact, forever!   

     Throughout both the Old Testament and the New, God describes himself as all love,  all goodness.    That pure, eternal love sent God’s Son to earth to suffer and die for us.   Christ’s perfect love, perfect life lived in our place, and perfect death for our sins combined to save imperfect humans.

     Once we experience the love of Jesus as a personal love, it changes us.   Bathed in love, we’re compelled to pass it on.   Jesus’ love becomes a blessing - spreading, surrounding over and around everyone we meet.     Pherhaps because it’s such an important virtue,  Jesus stresses again and again how much we need love in our life.   We’re told in Scripture that love builds up; faith shows itself through love.     Love heals and soothes by covering up other’s sins.   Instead of letting another’s failings build a wall, those who know Christ’s love can let love becomes a bridge.  Knowing Jesus loves us enables us to love others, no matter what they’ve done to hurt us.  We can leave judgment to God.   Love refuses to criticize or condemn.   It simply encircles a hurting heart.    Love is so important  in Christian life that the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13 describes it in minute detail.     There we learn that love -self-giving, self-forgetting love-will never end.   It will be forever, as it is right now, the language of heaven.