Love Has A Face.

Love has a face.
This is it.

Love is defined as: a profoundly tender, passionate desire or affection; wholehearted liking for, or pleasure in, something or someone. Think of this definition…as the face of Jesus Christ, of Nazareth.

                 For instance, take the Father heart of God. Is He not ‘profoundly tender’? Think of this in example of a little girl with her daddy. Imagine this little girl learning to ride her bicycle; she’s doing well, and her daddy standing not too far behind her, cheering her on. She falls; not two milliseconds after, her daddy picks her up as she’s crying from a skinned knee, and he comforts and smothers in profound tenderness. Now, imagine this for yourself in real life. Say you’re struggling with something in your life [I won’t list examples, as I don’t know your background], and you feel like after all this hard work to try to acquire something, you feel that you’ve failed, and you have fallen. You’ve “skinned your knees” in some way. On the inside, you’re hurting, and you’re hurting bad. You feel as though you’re the only one going through your particular situation. But your Profoundly Tender Father is right there! He’s inviting you to come sit on His lap and hug and cuddle with Him!

                Passionate desire or affection: the first story that comes to my mind is when Jesus walks up to the Samaritan woman at the well. How, despite the way life was back then, and how different the Jewish culture from the Samaritan culture, Jesus felt this passionate desire to tell this woman who He was; Jesus felt affection for this woman, and wanted to reveal His perfect love to her. In her situation (mind you, she was what we would nowadays call a prostitute), for Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, to come up to her, (of all the people in the world…an adulteress) was monumental. Jesus’ love was so heartfelt, and moving, that by Him just asking for a cup of water to drink on a hot day, changed her life forever.

                Wholeheartedness. What do you think of when you think of being wholehearted? To be wholehearted is this: “fully or completely sincere, enthusiastic, energetic, earnest, etc.” Is there anything in your day to day life that you feel ‘fully or completely sincere’ about? But think about this: Jesus is fully AND completely sincere (and any other positive, love-minded word you could ever think of) about YOU.

                If we were to really come to terms with this reality, our lives would never be the same. To know deep down in our hearts that Jesus is after our hearts; our love, our life, our time, our emotions, our ups and downs, etc. When we live knowing that Jesus is fully and completely sincere, and passionate with desire and affection for us…this is what would set us apart from everyone else. Now, think of what Jesus feels when we briefly glance at Him. When that person you have a crush on looks at you, and you feel like you just ate an entire pavilion of butterflies? Times that by infinity, and that’s how Jesus feels about you when you look at Him (for example) two seconds. Imagine the overwhelming emotions He would feel for you if you never took your eyes off of Him! Can you imagine anything greater that to be full of passion, or wholeheartedness towards one thing or person? I can’t…but that’s how it would be for Him if we were to love Him rightly.

                To think that we, while we were still yet sinners, hated Jesus. I can’t even imagine it, to be honest with you. To think that if I were the only person on the earth today, that He still would have died on the cross? I can hardly bear the thought. The only bit of love that I can barely muster up to give to Jesus moves His heart. And it takes so much for me to be able to accept that in my weakness, He loves me even then. There is nothing that I could ever do or not do that could make Him love me less. His love saved my life.

Love, “a profoundly tender, passionate desire or affection; wholehearted liking for, or pleasure in, something or someone”, saved my life. This a profoundly tender, passionate desire or affection; wholehearted liking for, or pleasure in, something or someone, is Jesus.

I pray for the day that you feel this love pour over your mind, your body, your spirit, like a waterfall. I did, and it has changed my heart forever.

Love has a Face. Love has a Name. The Man who Loved us so much as to die for us? Don’t you forget that face.