What is the genesis of love? In our faith, the source is found in our Triune God. Within the Trinity love is given and in God’s infiniteness, God bestows love upon the creation. Just think of it this way…God has so much love that it is continually overflowing out of God’s essence and pours into the creation. So as God is fashioning the world, the energy of creation is the overflow of God’s love! When did God first start loving you? I would dare say that there has never been a time when you weren’t loved by God!
In 1 John, he expands on this gift of love. He profoundly says that “We love because God first loved us!” Just sit with that for a moment. You are loved just as you are, in this very moment. You needn’t earn this love or prove that you are worthy of it. You needn’t be afraid of it or try to hide from it. Instead, you are loved…period! God adores you and has, long before you even awakened to it! And this isn’t something that makes us better than anyone else, but instead it makes us brothers and sisters who are equally loved!
Today, I invite you to read 1 John 4:7-21. There are many nuggets of truth and grace within these scriptures! Perfect love casts out fear; God sent his Son into our midst to show the immensity of God’s love; we ought to love each other if we dare to say that we love God. I would dare say that much of the division in our world is simply due to that fact that we forget our core reality—we are engulfed by love and invited to share love! Or, as Mother Teresa famously said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other!” To love God and the other is the fertile soil for peace to grow.