I was 21 and Alana was 18 when we got married in the summer of 1998. She was just out of high school, and I had just gotten a full-time job assembling rollers for industrial conveyor lines. We didn’t have any money, we didn’t really have any plan, we just wanted to get married and start life together. It wasn’t always easy, but we were always blessed. Several years later, someone asked Alana why she got married so early – she responded, “I was young, dumb, and in love!” Surely the truth at its finest!
Falling in love is almost everyone’s dream – but love is more than just “falling” for someone. As we light the second Advent Candle of Love this week, we are reminded that Love comes from God and that love is an actionable choice. God brings the message of the greatest gift of love the world as ever known in the form of His Son! The angels announce the humble arrival of the Savior to unsuspecting shepherds who choose to go and see the baby. “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us,” (Luke 2:15). They chose to respond the message of God! It is truly the Love of God in action, from both God, and from the shepherds!
I am reminded that love is more than just something for someone who is “young, dumb, or in love,” but it is a calling to all who follow Christ. I Corinthians 13:1-7 (English Standard Version) reveals the nature of true love in the life of a follower of Christ, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love is not always easy, but it is still our gift, our calling, and work, as we march towards glory in Christ.
Pastor Chris
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