Longing for Love

Sunday, December 21, 2025

Today’s Reading: 1 John 4:7-21

I literally feel something happening in my gut as I ponder love. Is there anything more profound, more visceral, more universal, more elemental than love? Everything else we have discussed is rooted in it. We don’t just desire it; we need it. And those who say otherwise are lying to themselves, likely to ease the pain of not having received it.

One of our adult daughters is visiting with her husband and 8-month-old baby. She and her husband are blessed with remote jobs, so they can be with their child all day, every day. They are wonderfully attentive and nurturing parents, and I can see the effect on their son. I believe that even at this early age, he displays behavior consistent with security and healthy attachment. Not everyone is as lucky as he. 

I am hard-pressed to think of any mental, emotional, or relational disrupter in life that isn’t significantly related to a person’s need for love and attachment. Even physical illness can often be related to emotional or mental stress, which again is often a manifestation of love neglected, love withheld, or love lost.

So let me speak to you more directly for a moment. Where is your ache? Were Mom and Dad there for you as providers and nurturers? Did people love you enough to keep you safe? Are you connected to friends who encourage and support you? Have you felt the warmth of being someone’s beloved? Have you had the opportunity to pour your love into others? How do you esteem yourself? 

I don’t know what that brought up for you, but I do know that most of us have some hurts. Whatever your hurt is, I am so sorry. There are people who care, and there is a God who cares. In the most cosmic-yet-intimate, self-existent, pure, and perfect way, He really loves you.

God is love.

Remember again our discussion of what I called the “physics” of God. God loves (the verb) because God is love (the noun). It is the essence of who He is, and I would argue any genuine expression of love, given or received, small or great, is a glimpse of God. 

I wish there were words adequate to convey God’s love. I’m not sure we will fully comprehend the immensity of His love until we reach heaven, but looking at the brutal death of Jesus on our behalf is enough to drop you to your knees. The love of the cross overwhelms me. The great love expressed in His death was the very purpose of His birth. 

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 NIV)

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NIV)

“I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39 NIV)

As I have held our sweet grandbaby recently, I am moved once again by the mystery of the manger. God incarnate, the Messiah promised by the prophets, came to earth in the most vulnerable, tender, quiet way. God took on flesh so that He could empathize with our suffering, take our punishment, and make way for our restoration.

“This is love: 

not that we loved God, 

but that He loved us 

and sent his Son 

as an atoning sacrifice 

for our sins.” 

(1 John 4:10 NIV)