(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Summer 2024 Digital Issue #112)

by Francine Gikow, OFS

 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields…

there I will give you my love

(Song 7:10-12).

All scripture is a love story between God and humankind. It is a story of how God has and continues to love us. God IS love and God’s love is always fruitful, expressive, expansive, and wishes an “other” to love. With this desire for an “other” to love, God created! He created to share His love with His creatures and thereby manifest Himself. This culminates in creating living persons who are made in His image and likeness. (Gen 1:26).

We love, because he first loved us (Jn :19). In fact, God wants to lavishly expend His love upon us. God wants to live within us as we live in love with Him: God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1Jn4:16). The love between the persons of the blessed Trinity is to be our model in this love. As St. Francis said, Praise Him and bless Him, thank and adore Him, the Lord Almighty, in Trinity and Unity. (ER XXI: 2).

God loves us so much that He incarnated Himself in human form – Jesus. God, through the apostles, planned for us to know Him – through Jesus’ physical presence, words, and deeds. In the incarnation, the love of God was made manifest among us. God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might live with Him.

We often try to understand God’s love within our experiences of brokenness and sinfulness, but we can never fully understand this pure love of God that only wishes the best for us – no matter how much we turn away from Him. God’s love knows no boundaries, limits, or exclusions. However, in our finite minds and experiences, we find this type of agape (self-sacrificing) love, hard to believe. We doubt that God desires and loves us while we are so unworthy. We tend to measure God’s love by how we love. God’s agape love does not count the cost of loving but loves us anyway – all we need is to acknowledge our sins and ask for forgiveness in humility. As scripture states: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1Jn 4:18).

When we are filled with God’s love, we cannot help but share it with others. With gratitude, His love takes over our souls and our spirit erupts into praise, glory, and the sharing of our experience of God’s love: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1Jn 4:11). We become a practical, concrete example of LOVE to others, by His LOVE dwelling within us: He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).

We cannot help but be joyful and smile because we are the beloved of God. One of the best ways to reveal his love to others, is to smile! A simple smile ministry reveals the joy of God’s impact on your life!

A wise person once said:

we get LOVE, to give LOVE, and to return to LOVE.

Flaming Heart