Jun 08, 2016

God is Love (26)

                   1 John 4:8

Love always perseveres (1)

                                     1 Corinthians 13

The perseverance of the Love of God is one of the hallmarks of God. God has been Love for all eternity; such a mind-boggling concept makes the age of the universe, 13.8 billion years, seem like an infinitesimal period of time. I find it amusing that one of the signs of the arrogance of humanity is to believe that this period of time of our universe, a history of 70,000 years on a planet that is 4.6 billion years old, in a universe that is 13.8 billion years old, in a cosmos that has an age of infinity, is the only time that God has had a sentient being in sight. No, these exercises of creation, life, sentient life, a process of maturing that sentient being, has been going on for eternity. Sometimes I suspect it moves along faster than with our humanity, and I also suspect that sometimes it fails to reach the level of godliness that the “kingdom of heaven that lies within” demands, and a fresh start is made. Of course, God deals in the space of no-time, so all is going on at the same ‘time’, or Now (God is in ‘no-time’ for all eternity, so ‘Now’ is all there is).

God never gives up on us; for God understands that we cannot miss the ultimate goal: since we carry the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ within us at all times, when we pass from this life we immediately enter that Kingdom of Love and Joy. Jesus made no distinction in who carries that Kingdom of God, just made the blunt statement that the “Kingdom of God lies within” and stopped, giving no caveats about who carries that Kingdom: Everyone!

The perseverance of God is a given: look at the skies above, look at the beauty of the world around us, look into the eyes of a baby and see the wisdom of God looking back at you, see the Kingdom of God looking at you. If you only have eyes to see, you will see the visage of God in all that exists, even in all that we call ‘evil’.

When Moses asked the burning bush who he should tell his people sent him, God replied: “I AM!” God did not distinguish between anything: just “I AM THAT I AM!” That simple statement says it all: “God Is”. God is the all in all, there is nothing not included in that simple definition of God, given by God Itself. Look in the mirror: you see part of that “I Am” statement. Look at that tree: you see part of “I Am”. Yes look at the person we call a ‘bum’ lying passed out on the street: you are looking at “I Am” in the flesh, as painful as it may seem.

For God is nothing, if not persevering in Love for you and me, and all of creation. God never gives up. I have felt the love of God at times when I was really feeling down and berating myself for my weakness at that time, and God turns around and gave me such a blast of Love that it took my breath away. I have felt the perseverance of the Love of God many times in my life, and I am so grateful for those times when that Love kept me from despair.

God is Love. Period. God never stops Loving us, for God sees who we really are, and is in rapture at what God understands us to be: we are love, only love, in our core.

I will repeat that:

We are Love, only Love, in our core.

No matter what we pretend to be on the outside.

“Sing praises to God, sing praises;

Sing praises to our God, sing praises.

For God is above all the earth;

Sing to God a psalm of praise.”

                               Psalm 47 6-7 (NIV)

Meditation

Holy Wisdom, I am in awe as the unfathomable Love You have is poured upon us with so many blessings. The Love is saturating our little blue ball that we call home. I am grateful for all the blessings that abound; the breathtaking beauty of nature, the wonders of life. I am constantly amazed at the wonders I see around me, over me, under me, and within me. As I have gained years You have seen fit to open my eyes to Your gifts in ways I could not have imagined in time past. The beauty of the love of my life, the wonders of the seasons, the gifts of love that empowers all I do; all things I could not have even considered.

My God, I know that You will never abandon us, no matter what we end up becoming in this time and space. That “Kingdom that lies within” will always spark us into the future, and the possibilities are so great that we cannot fail in the end.

 

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