It has been said that love is give and take. You win some, you lose some. Honestly, those types of cliche blanket statements about something as simple and easy as love sound so true. I mean, you do win sometimes and lose sometimes, right? Giving and taking is a legitimate by-product of love. Isn't it?
No. It isn't.
Winning is something you hope to do against an opponent. You strive for victory always, and never defeat. Yet Love, Love requires defeat. And why would you treat someone you love like they are an opponent?
And yes, Love is a lot of giving. But why is it okay to take? How is that true Love? Love asks and hopes and encourages, but taking is not part of the equation.
When Jesus came down to Earth for us, for all of us--the sick and broken and dirty and messed up, and those who think we are beautiful and put together and a gift to those around us. When He was born into a feeding trough for donkeys, when He walked the dusty roads of Galilee, when He trudged up the sharp, rocky hill of Golgotha with a cross on His devoured back, when He died on that cross for you and i, it was all give and no take. It was all losing and no winning. Why? Because of Love. He does not take our Love, for it must be given. He does not win our Love, for we must lose ourselves before we can find real Love to give. Yes, He asks and pleads and encourages and leads and directs. So much so that He defied death itself, so that we would have Someone, the only One, who could ever receive fully and know completely what tattered Love we have to offer. And embrace it. Not merely accept it, but to call us His very own children.
"Here is Love,
vast as the ocean!
Lovingkindness as the flood.
When the Prince of Life,
our Ransom,
shed for us His precious blood.
Who His Love will not remember?
Who could cease to sing His praise?
He will never be forgotten
throughout Heaven's eternal days."
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