What’s the meaning of Love?

“There’s a difference between like and love. Because, I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack.”

While this quote from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You is ridiculous, I remember how the comparison of words got me thinking about the meanings of words and how humans and cultures give different values and emotional clarifiers to the words we use. The word LOVE has so many meanings, and in some cases, our speech gives little emotional value when we use it. Like in the quote above, Americans tend to misuse the word love to describe food, clothing, and entertainment, and the casualness to speak of our “loves” has cheapened the word’s intent.

So, as we enter Christmas Eve, my hope is we will make space to reflect on the goodness of God’s AGAPE LOVE. His all-encompassing, unconditional love for mankind was shown to us through the birth of Christ. God knew we would need help understanding hope, giving grace, and living in love. So, like the “big man” in charge of all the details that He is, He planned an intervention to rock our world. He challenged our limited perspective and showed us how to believe in the unseen, throw off humanity’s shackles, and trust in the nearness of God.

What a gift! While not how we would have chosen it, Christ is the best gift of love from His birth to His ministry to His death and resurrection. God showcases the meaning of LOVE in Christ. God chose to love us by living among us, Emmanuel, so that we might see and know Him better. May God’s love captivate you and move you to a grateful celebration this Christmas. While love may have many meanings, my hope is that you can know and celebrate the width, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love for you (Ephesians 3: 14-21).

While writing this blog, I thought of Christina Rossetti’s hymn “Love Came Down at Christmas.” If you have time, pause and read or listen to the hymn, then meditate on the words.