glimpse into the Lover's heart

May 9, 2010

Last night was senior large group, basically a fellowship meeting put on by the seniors. Our goal that we had in mind the entire time we planned was to glorify God with this large group, and not to center it upon ourselves or glorify ourselves,but God. And we did glorify God with our large group. And I know it's not because we did anything, and it's not by our own intention or strength that we were able to glorify God with this event, but really because our hearts desired to glorify God and God honored that, however imperfect that desire was. It was amazing! Everything went so smoothly, particularly, how we were SO on time. Honestly, I thought we'd go over by 20 minutes or so, but we didn't. And it's a small thing, irrelevant almost, but as I was reflecting on that during the last worship set, I was so moved because I really do believe that God was present during large group and that He was the one that orchestrated and allowed everything to go the way it did. And to think that God, the Lord of all creation, of the entire universe, would take notice of us 31 seniors who wanted to glorify him with this event, and allow the entire event to go SO smoothly, down to the tiniest detail in terms of timing, I was awestruck and pretty overwhelmed.

I guess it reminded me of the amazing concept of an almighty God loving people so flawed and broken, to the point that He sent His son to die for us. To me, in the greater span of things, this senior large group must be so tiny in God's entire plan for creation. This senior large group put on by 31 seniors, in my head, was on the equivalence of some dinky, imperfect, far from artistically beautiful hand-made card by a 3 year old to his mother. But I guess as dinky as it is, mothers love it nonetheless, and God loves us nonetheless and chose to grace our large group and us with His love and His glory. And I felt like for just one split second, I got the tiniest glimpse and understanding of how it is that God loves us all even when we at times find it hard to love one another or even ourselves. Because love is a choice, and God chose to love us, and as imperfect and flawed as we and anything we make is, He looks beyond and past that, and looks straight into our hearts, our motives, our intentions, our potential, and loves us simply because He chooses to, despite all He sees.

I love this quote by CS Lewis:

[God's] love and His knowledge are not distinct from one another, nor from Him. We could almost say He sees because He loves, and therefore loves although He sees. (A Grief Observed)

I really like that quote. It's so true, God loves although He sees, although He sees all the flaws, the brokenness, the insecurities, the pure evil in the hearts, the stubborn wrongdoings, the stumbling and falling, He still loves.

Reflecting on my class and the last four years in college, I've come to realize that I do indeed love my class. Even with all our flaws and our far from perfect walks, personalities, and characters, I know that despite all the problems we have with one another (and I know this because so many people have talked/complained bout how they were unhappy with certain things or people), we genuinely love each other because it is God's love that unifies us. On our own, we would have no strength or will to truly appreciate each other, but because we are have love for God as a common bond, we're able to see beyond those flaws in other people, and learn to love and grow together.

I guess I've been reflecting on 'love' a lot. I believe I've learned a lot about it over these last four years. And I felt like God helped me sum it up nicely last night with senior large group. That love is a choice, and that just because we have different opinions from other people or have different pet peeves and what not, we can still choose to love, look past those things, and focus on our common bond: our love for God, and see how He is working in each and every one of our lives. I do very much love my class :) & I'm so excited for all the great things that I know God will do in each and every one of their lives.