Unrequited Love

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First John 4:9-10 says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 

     We learn lessons all of our lives and sometimes we learn them the hard way.  I have written a book titled, “Encouragement on the Road of Life.”  It is a book of life's experiences that I have had and the spiritual significance of those experiences.  Well, even in my old age, God is still teaching me things.  I recently had a 58 year old lady tell me, “I love you.”  Well, to put it into a short lesson, I took it the wrong way and my pride once again reared its ugly head but that wasn’t the lesson that I learned through all of this.  I learned the lesson of unrequited love.  I was later informed that the expression meant that I was loved as a pastor or like one who would love a dog, or a car, or a new phone, and that there were no real feelings involved.  Well, just how does that work in the Spiritual world?

     The above passage, very similar to John 3:16 describes God’s love for the world.  Here it mentions that God loved us and indeed loves us even today.  It was manifested by the sending of His Son to die on the cross for our sins.  The definition of unrequited love is loving someone who does not return that same love.  There is where we find the spiritual significance of unrequited love in our relationship to God.  My feelings of rejection or sadness or whatever you might call it is what God experiences multiple by at least 7.6 billion times, which is the population of the earth at present.  You need also to think of those that die without Christ who did  not love their Creator even though He loved them.  I remember getting love notes in school and they were so worn by my constant reading of them that they almost fell apart.  Is that the way we love God?  I dare say, we don’t come even close.  Our Bibles are sometimes in pristine condition and serve as a reminder of our Christian faith as they are the center of attention on the coffee table.  How much to we think about God?  How often do we pray to Him in simple praise and thanksgiving?  How do we hide His word in our hearts?  How often do we share our feelings about God with others?  For some, it may be fifteen minutes a day, or maybe even a half hour or hour.  I have seriously thought of getting a Mezuzah and putting it on my door with Deuteronomy 7:4-9 in it and kissing it every time I went through the door. It’s a Jewish custom that doesn’t seem that bad to do for me.  How much do I love God?  I want to be wrapped around by His presence in all that I do as I have been giving unrequited love to Him for years and it is shameful. So, praise God today that He loves us.  Now what are we going to do in return?