I guess when we talk about love;
our minds easily revert to the story of Romeo and Juliet. At the tail end of their
tragic romance, Romeo drank a portion of poison when he realized that Juliet,
the love of his life was dead. Having woken up from her deep sleep and
realizing Romeo was dead; Juliet also stabbed herself to death. There is no
doubt from their tragic acts that they had an inseparable addiction to one
another. To each of them, it was worthless living if the other partner was not
alive. And yet they each had something special they saw in the other
partner.
For example, both Romeo and
Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet
as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel
sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds. Juliet also described Romeo as
"day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's back.” In
other words, each of them had a reason for showing that intense love for the
other partner.
After the fall of man, man became
corrupted, polluted and lost fellowship with God. There was nothing in man
worth loving. Unlike Romeo and Juliet who each found something in the other to
motivate their love, man had nothing and absolutely nothing to motivate any
love.
Notwithstanding the fact that
there was nothing to love in man, God showed unmerited favour, grace, mercy and
love in saving man from doom. The sacrificial death of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary demonstrated a deep seated and
unimaginable love. There can be no one ever like God. Yes, we were made in the
image of God and can to a certain degree emulate His illustrious and majestic
virtues however we can never have the heart that God has. He showed love when
there was absolutely nothing in us to merit His divine love and mercy.
That same love still blazes on
even to this day and all we have to do is to have faith in that love and to
trust Him to guide our way. There are some who question the love of God when
bad things happen to them. But I believe that if we each had the gift of foretelling
the future, we would not have done some of the things that we have done in the past.
Let us say that you are able to see into the future that you have aced all your
papers and out of your celebration were knocked down by a car. After that
revelation, would you pray to God to help you ace all your papers?
One important thing many people
forget is that God is all-knowing. He can tell what will happen to us in the
next few hours and in the next thirty years. Yet we always insist that things
be done our way. The gratification of the flesh has taken center stage in the
lives of many and instant gratification is all they ever seek for. Some
unfortunately would even go to the extent of questioning God's love for them.
How heartbreaking it would be for your daughter/son to walk up to you one day
and say “Do you really love me dad/mom?” I believe that would be the most
disheartening day of any parent and yet it is the same we do to our creator
when we question His love.
When certain unfortunate things
happen to us, we have to appreciate the full impact of the act. Try to ask
yourself what would have happened had that event not taken place in your life
and maybe you will appreciate God's blessings in disguise. Some of the things
that we categorize as “bad” may in many cases become God's favourable detours
to bring us onto higher ground. That is why the saying that there is a silver
lining in every dark cloud could not have been more lucid, accurate and
eternally correct in all respects.
His love as I said still blazes
on and all we have to do is to trust, accept and have faith in that love. It is
one thing hearing about this so called Love of God and another thing actually
experiencing it. I have experienced this amazing love God has for all and in this Easter
period, I have only one wish for you that you will also come to trust, accept
and have faith in the Love of God.
