Is This Love?

Who among us hasn’t asked this question at some point? Questions about love have been the subject of poetry, song, art, and even social media polls for years. All of America’s retailers would have us believe that love is some combination of red, large, and expensive. And that love is primarily celebrated in February, but you can start buying your love objects right after Christmas. Just as we can think that the measure of love is calculated in red, large, and expensive items in February, we can think that God’s love can be measured in how blessed we are or are not.

There is a man in the Bible who God loved. He loved him a lot. In American retailer language, we’re talking ten dozen long-stemmed red roses, a giant teddy bear, and five pounds of Belgian chocolate.

Job was dearly loved by God, and he loved God. He loved God so much that God knew his love wasn’t tied up in his personal fortune. Satan thought he could get Job to curse God, to denounce his love for him. He tried. Oh, how he tried!

Satan stripped Job of everything: health, wealth, family, home.

Still, Job knew that God loved him. He knew God’s love wasn’t measured in earthly things. What I love most about the story of Job is that Job asked questions of God, tried to understand his suffering, and tried to know God.

God has some hard answers for Job:

“Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? Who gives the ibis wisdom or gives the rooster understanding? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?” (Job 38:34-38 NIV)

God continues in the next three chapters to remind Job that he is the God of the universe and he is in control.

Job replies to God, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:2-3 NIV).

The God of the universe—the one who holds lightning in his hands, who makes the horse take flight—loves you with the same passion. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples and us, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29-31 NIV).

It’s fine and even fun to be loved by someone who buys you flowers and chocolates and gifts. But it’s life-changing to be loved by a God powerful enough to create mountains, make the eagle soar, and craft beauty in wildflowers. This is the God who loves you!

The apostle Paul tried to describe love in his first letter to the Corinthians. If you’ve been to a wedding, you’ve no doubt heard verses 4-13, but I love the introduction in verses 1-3:

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

We can speak every language, we can have all knowledge and wisdom and a mountain of faith, but if we don’t know God’s love, we have nothing at all. We can do every good deed and give away all we have, but if we don’t know God’s love, it means nothing.

I’d like to add my own paraphrase: We can have all the flowers, chocolates, and gifts that the world can offer, but if we don’t know God’s love for us, it ends up feeling like nothing.

God reminds us of his love through his creation. Take a walk today and see all the ways God loves you. When you see a bird, know that nothing happens to that feathered creature that God doesn’t know about. Then remind yourself of how much more God cares for you.

You are loved. Not just in February, but always and forever. A great big, mountain-building, eagle-flying love with wildflower tenderness.

Annie Carlson is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.

Photograph © Joe Yates, used with permission