The Letter part 5
Writing someone a letter is a little old fashioned these days. I think email is about as close as we get anymore. Which is kind of a shame. Because there's something special about putting pen to paper. Expressing your feelings in really pretty permanent way. In the age of emojis and snapchat... it seems like it's hard to make anything last anymore. There's someting permanent about a letter, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Something weighty. Like back in the day when you had to spend a whole day making someone a mix tape, whereas now we can just burn a CD real quick or gift someone digital music. Effort, is what I'm getting at. It takes effort to write a letter. That's what God did for us when He gave us His only begotten Son. Because Jesus is the Word of God. God wrote us a letter with one Word on it: Love. He wrote us a love letter by giving His life for us, and to us. Because He wanted us to have it. And now we do have it. We get to experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. Jesus put the effort in. He finished the work. And now we get to enjoy the fruit of His labor. The fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. He showed His love for us by giving His life to us. To live is to love and to love is to live. Look at John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And, 1 John 3:16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Giving your life is expressing your love. You write a love letter by living life to the fullest. By letting God love the hell out of you, and then turning around and loving the hell out of people. He laid His life down for us, we ought to lay our lives down for each other. That's how we perceive the love of God, and that's how we express the love of God. We read the letter He wrote (with His Spirit, to our spirit... a letter written on our hearts) and then we publish that letter. We let what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. You can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So you have to know what you have. You have to know--with a knowledge that passes knowledge--that God loves you. And then you can love Him back. By loving people. You can receive and release the love of God. You can experience His life by letting Him live it in you, and through you, and as you. Letters take effort. But it's worth it. Laying your life down for your friends is the greatest love that a man can have. Giving everything you have and everything you are. That's what this life is all about. That's what this life is for. That's how we experience the gift we've been given--the life we've been given; by giving it away. By sharing it. By letting what's inside come out. God wrote a letter to the world. A love letter. And it's you and me. He created us so that He could express Himself--His LOVE--to us. And in us. And through us. And as us!