The thing about love is God. The thing about God is love. When you get down to it, you can’t really find one without discovering the other.

God owns love. It belongs to Him. It is His idea. His creation. Nobody knows it, or does it better. God is love.

So, why does this matter? Well, because of what God’s love causes Him to do. He doesn’t simply say “I love you.” He goes well beyond that, to a place that only love can take Him. He shows us the depth to which He loves us.

Consider this verse, 1 John 1:2…”This one who is life from God was shown to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and announce to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was shown to us.”-The ‘one’ and the ‘he’ being referred to is Jesus.

So, here is what John (the one who penned this letter) is getting across…God decided to show Himself to man. And not one of those Old Testament “hide in a rock and I will let you get a glimpse as I go by” kind of showings. God put His very essence on display.

As a human. A flesh and blood, actual living-breathing human being. God did not just appear in a dream, or a ghost-like type of visitation. God took on the same kind of existence you and I live. He breathed. He spoke. He slept. He ate. He laughed. He got angry. He pulled pranks on his friends (surely Jesus did that, don’t you think?). He was real. From head to toe, Jesus was real.

God didn’t do this so that He could get an idea of what life was like down here. He made “down here.” I imagine He already had a pretty good idea.

He came because He knew that for us to get that close to Him meant He would have to get that close to us.

He came so that we could see, once and for all, what love looks like.

Only a God who loves outrageously would do that.

So now the questions roll in. What will we do with such a love? How will see that kind of love invade our lives? How will this love transform us?