For love to be made whole, it must be a love that is willing to embrace the fullness of God’s love for oneself as well as to learn to love the other. It is a work in progress! A seminary professor said, “Why did Jesus only give us the command to love? Simply, we will spend all our lives trying to learn how to do just that one thing!” In all seriousness, all the laws of God as well as the very purpose for our existence, was to be love…to allow love to flow from our truest self!

The worst moment of human history is the moment of the crucifixion. In that moment, God’s Son dies at the hands of the worst of humanity—lies, deceit, hatred, anger, etc. Our scriptures record that darkness engulfed our world for three long hours. In the midst of that moment, the very first word from the cross is an act of love, of grace: Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. Sit with that for a moment!

In the darkness of those moments, was God busily working within our world, our cosmos, in eternity by once again speaking into creation? In the crucifixion, was God enthusiastically painting the new reality of humanity—that not even death, violence, and loss can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?

The end of our faith narrative is not a story of death, but of life—resurrection! Love wins! Paul echoes our reality of not fully understanding this by saying, “Now we see a reflection in a mirror; then we will see face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I have been completely known.” Today, rejoice in the hope we have, for love always wins!