Love Brought It About

“The beauty was not meant to be so much in the thing itself, but the love that brought it about.” (“gods at war” pg. 96 paragraph 5 second sentence) 

The Word of God declares: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11) echoing the fate of Isaiah’s prophetic message of the suffering Servant: “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him” (Isaiah 53:2 NLT). Let us now find out what did love bring about. I now invite you Into My HEART...

 As I read the above words from Kyle Idleman’s “gods at war” a picture began to form in my very mind as the words captured my very soul. I saw the creature that was made; the thing brought into this world through a young virgin Mary. “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV). I saw right before my eyes “the beauty was not so much in the thing” revealing that Christ being born and present in this world—God Himself in the flesh would not capture our attention nor captivate our hearts, because He came in the form of a servant, a lowly man of insignificant stature to fulfill what we the human race could never conceive in our wildest imaginations (Philippians 2:5-11; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:8). In other words what we would not have wanted, sought after or desired as His look would not coincide with what we would want or demand Him to be.

However, behold, another thing is before my eyes, another thing captures the hearts of men! Those who would look to Him; those who would believe in Him, would see this: “The beauty was not meant to be so much in the thing itself, but the love that brought it about.”

Jesus is the Son of God’s love. He is the visible image of the invisible God. He is the expressed image; the very likeness of God, that being, His very divine character in which we can come to know God Himself in the most extraordinary manner—personally, intimately and powerfully.

When a young Mary came face-to-face with one of the Lord’s divine messengers. The angel Gabriel (in which only delivers good news of glad tidings to men on behalf of His King and God) spoke to her and declared: “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28 NKJV). Surely this is good news yet God’s message to this young lady was not finished: Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33 NKJV).

Now at such startling words anyone in her position, that of a young virgin woman, would respond in like manner: “Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34 NKJV). 

As I mentioned before, the Lord’s messenger; the angel Gabriel, only delivers messages that bring good news and glad tidings to men on the behalf of the Lord God. And so his message continued: And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:35-37 NKJV emphasis added)

Now an appropriate response to God’s gift to all humanity should play out like this: Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:35 15:38 NKJV) 

Let us revisit what started all of this: “The beauty was not meant to be so much in the thing itself, but the love that brought it about.” The love of God is what brought about the single most triumphant moment to ever take place in human history—the birth of the Son of God into the human condition. God Himself would be among us, loving us, walking with us and teaching us of His ways. It was the [love] of God that decided that humanity would know Him in a tangible way. It was the [love] of God that came to us, drew near to us and made Himself known to us in a most extravagant and peculiar way!

The love of God brought about the greatest gift to humanity. Himself! The Creator of all that there is was among us, with us as one of us. 

It was the [love] of God that overshadowed Mary. It was the [love] of God that brought that glorious message to mankind. It was the [love] of God that made that prophetic message and imagery known to a man 700 years prior to the very Man he spoke us coming into the world. Isaiah experienced the profound limitless [love] of God and so did Mary and so have we! 

It is the infinite, eternal, all surpassing, all encompassing, never revoked, boundless, limitless, unconditional and sacrificial [love] of God that conceived such a thing, such a moment, such an idea, such a gift as that of Jesus Christ the Lord; God in the flesh! Halleluyah.

Upon that Holy One coming into the world; coming to His own, and crying those first cries as a baby, the whole of humanity, from the very beginning to the very last breath taken in this age, would have experienced the [love] of God bringing about the most joyous of all occasions—God with us.

As a human being, I know what it is to receive gifts of many kinds and many gifts I have received. At first when I received them, I rejoiced in them. When I had received something I really wanted, I really rejoiced in it, however, that rejoicing would fade overtime as I would lose sight of the love that brought about such a gift into my life. The gift itself is always great and remains always great, but the [love] that brought about such a gift, well, that should captivate us for an eternity. 

We may rejoice in the giver of the gift and also in the gift for a time if we fail to acknowledge and comprehend the love behind the giving; the sacrifice it took to produce that gift in love. This is why we should look upon the Gift from the Giver of givers and when we take in the Gift; Christ Himself, in which is the Gift of all gifts, we should rejoice and remain perpetually rejoicing with renewed rejoicing on top of that, over God’s Gift to us through great sacrifice: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV). 

The love of God that produced His Son in this world through miraculous circumstances is nothing to turn the cheek to, dismiss or put aside. The only response that will suffice is to embrace Him and rejoice in Him forever. Amen.

 As always...YOU ARE LOVED.

—F. Lugo 

4/2/15