by Sero Ku //
Devotional, LOVE —Love was, is, and always will be a verb and a noun, for God is love.
Prepare
“God, we breathe in Your presence, your love and joy of this season. As we celebrate this season, we also recognize how possibly painful this season may be for so many in our world. We ask for your loving presence to be known to and through every one of us, individually and as a united community of love. May we be the just and welcoming community of love where you have called us for such a time as this!”
READ
“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the one-of-a-kind glory with our own eyes, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” (John 1:14 MSG)
“Creator’s Word became a flesh-and-blood human being and pitched his sacred tent among us, living as one of us. We looked upon his great beauty and saw how honorable he was, the kind of honor held only by this one Son who fully represents his Father—full of his great kindness and truth.” (John 1:14 FNVNT)
REFLECT
I’ve heard somewhere how “generosity begets generosity,” and it has me wondering in this season how and if our lives reflect how “love begets love.” Are we living in love, being rooted in God’s love?
When I think about how Jesus “moved into the neighborhood,” our neighborhood, I’m truly humbled by the fact he came generously, as a baby. And the fact that his family, one way or another, migrated to Bethlehem to be born, and then also experienced being a refugee child seeking asylum in Egypt is mind-blowing. He humbled himself to be integrated and “pitched his sacred tent among us,” those who are made in his image – even when we too often need a reminder of that truth.
We, one way or another, are all on our journey of learning to live, learning to live as those who are made in God’s image. The Creator loved the created world and people beyond all of our understanding combined. I believe that the more we know we are made in God’s image, the more we can see and love others in God’s image. That propels us to be and live as image-bearers that love. God, Love Himself, moved into the neighborhood with humility and generosity to live among us. That love takes space as well as makes room through reciprocal divine hospitality.
We have been invited to that sacred tent, of God’s presence, which invites us to do the same by practicing the generous hospitality of being a welcoming community of love. As Jesus chose “living as one of us,” do our lives show that we live in that proximity of God’s generous love full of “his great kindness and truth”? What would it look like for our individual lives as well as our community to show this kind of humble and generous love of hospitality? What is one thing and/or who is one person that God may be inviting you to practice this love toward, as you also receive with open hands of that love?