LOVE
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God: if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4: 7-12
A carol with words from the poet Christina Rossetti reminds us that love came down at Christmas. How blessed we are if we can find a quiet time to reflect on the simple, clear lines of the carol and experience the grace of love.
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.
(Christina Georgina Rossetti, 1830-1894)
Yes, we children of God, brothers and sisters to one another, living as neighbors in an ever smaller world, need to find in the days of this Advent week opportunities for acts of love toward those we do not know. We know God knows the strangers, just as God knows us! As Rossetti wrote, “Love be yours and love be mine, Love to God and all men.”
