What does love look like?
For weeks I’ve been trying to match an image, for myself, to what love looks like. Not the typical hearts and stuff, but if I were to draw out love, what would I be drawing?
Which made me begin thinking about times in my life I’ve seen such extravagant love.
When I was 17 years old, I was already on a spree of shenanigans, but I went and got arrested for a DUI. For years I had been in a habit of comparing myself to my brother, who in my eyes could do no wrong at that time (it wasn’t true). So to think that I was just adding onto the list of things for my parents to be disappointed in me with really got me, I almost would have rather sat in that cell, hand cuffed to the bench (almost), than have my parents come pick me up and give me these looks of disappointment that I thought I’d been getting for so long for being the “let down child”. That’s how I viewed it.
But at 3am they released me to my mom, and I was bracing myself for all of it, but she just embraced me in her arms. She hugged me so tight, with tears rolling down her face she told me she was glad I was ok. And with that we drove home. I was so taken aback. I figured I’d go to sleep, wake up and in the morning, then I’ll hear what both of them really have to say. But I woke up, they sat me down and they just asked me what happened.
Being a 17 year old, I was just happy to be off the hook, but soon enough the Lord showed me how through that situation and Him using my parents in that way in that situation, that will forever be one of the most evident ways I have seen God’s love and grace at work in this life.
What does love look like?
Love looks like my parents loving their daughter so well through such a difficult time and situation, and never leaving her side so that later it is a miraculous testimony to the name of Jesus Christ.
Another image of love that I adore is the cross. Which seems cliché, I know.
A couple years ago I began collecting crosses everywhere I went, whether it was at a young life camp or in Guatemala, now I’m doing my best to continue that while on the race. But last month in Skopje, Macedonia there was this giant cross that looked over the city and at night it would be lit up and would always shine in the darkness. I loved this. I love what it represented. I love where it stood. I love that everyone could see it. And this month there is a cross on the church that we’re staying at and working with that lights up at night and it reminds me of Skopje.
^This is the cross from Skopje, when we took the ski lift to the top
There’s also, far off in the distance, on a little mountain or a big hill, a small cross there. Definitely not as big as the one from Skopje, but it gives me such hope that it is there for everyone to see. That they might dig in to find out what it means. It doesn’t light up at night, but that’s ok, cause I see it every day and I’ve only been here 2 weeks. So I can only imagine how many others have seen it and what thoughts have gone through their head.
Then, of course, there’s the cross of Calvary. The cross that Jesus took up that gave all of these other little crosses their meaning.
It’s been said again and again, But Jesus took this thing that used to be a symbol of pain, agony and fear and completely redefined and turned into a symbol of love and hope. A symbol people wear as a sign of their faith, to say “I know what Jesus did for me. Cause even if it was just me here on this earth, He would have endured the cross for solely me.”
THAT is what love looks like.
It looks like sacrificial love.
It looks like redefining fear, putting a new view on something like a cross, which the whole world now associates with Jesus.
It looks like your parents loving you so well in a hard time, that there’s no doubt there’s a God, cause that was HIS love shining through them.
Love looks like Romans 12:9-21. Which happens to be my favorite scripture, which helps teach us how to love. And when all of God’s people are loving each other, that’s how we can give back to our Lord and show Him we love Him.
Love looks like many different things, but as I sat thinking about this question a those big things came to mind. Those big examples of love and grace. And what a sweet thing that the Lord has given us His sacrifice, but then also put people in our lives to show us continual sacrifice and love and grace throughout the rest of our time here on earth.
