Yesterday was my 50^th birthday, and I can say without hesitation that I have never felt more loved in all of my life. My family treated me like an absolute queen all day long. Friends and family from near and far sent greetings through phone calls, text messages, social media, and good old-fashioned birthday cards in the mail. It was overwhelming to say the least, and I cannot imagine ever feeling more loved.

As incredibly loved as this birthday celebration made me feel, it has also reminded me of how much more love IS than simply a feeling. Love is far more complex than that. Love is commitment to a relationship through good times and bad, and it doesn’t always feel good. Love is commitment to a relationship whether near or far, and that’s very, very hard.

Reflecting on the loving relationships my birthday has reminded me of, I’ve realized several facts about love that don’t often make it into the Hallmark store:

• Love is crying with one another, grieving the loss of a family member or close friend.
• Love is encouraging one another through injustices at work or in other relationships.
• Love is saying what needs to be said, even when it’s difficult to say and even more difficult to hear.
• Love is supporting one another through the consequences of poor decisions while graciously and patiently helping rebuild what has been broken.

Love like this rarely ever feels good. In fact, it often feels bad. It’s hard. As I think about the love that did feel so good yesterday, though, I realize that it came as a result of many years of these difficult love experiences with friends and family through the years. Loving one another when love felt awkward or hurtful was foundational to the love yesterday that felt so good.

It strikes me that this type of enduring love is surely of God, for it reflects His perfect love in so many ways. God’s love never fails. It sustains us through hard times and rejoices with us in good times. God’s love revealed most clearly through the gift of His Son must surely feel more than just good to our Heavenly Father, don’t you think?

         “God is love. This is how God showed his love among us:

         He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might

         live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but

         that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice

         for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also

         ought to love one another. God lives in us, and his love is

         made complete in us.”  (1 John 4:8-12)

This kind of love reflects sacrifice.

This kind of love reflects faithfulness in spite of rejection.

This kind of love reflects great courage.

This kind of love reflects Jesus Christ.

Whether we are blessed with friends and family who love well or not, we are all loved by a Heavenly Father whose love never fails. As difficult as it is to imagine, the amazing love that I felt yesterday pales in comparison to my Father’s love for me. How can that even be?!?

And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
(“And Can It Be,” Lyrics by Charles Wesley)

The big “5 – 0” birthday has come and gone, but I pray the lessons of love that came with it will last long past the celebration.

God, teach us to embrace your love, so freely and fully given. Teach us to love others faithfully, even when we don’t feel like it. Give us strength to love well, even when others reject our love.  Forgive us when we adopt the world’s view of love, and fail to push beyond the inconveniences and unpleasantries that don’t feel good. Live in us. Love through us, thereby making us complete in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of His Spirit at work in us, for your glory.  Amen.

When I was a little girl, some of my favorite hymns were the ones we sang about Heaven. We sang them often, and even the people who didn’t usually sing very loudly sang them passionately.  I remember anticipating from the first few measures of “When We All Get to Heaven” the great part singing to come on the chorus. The women would begin, answered quickly by the men, as if to confirm even musically the harmonious diversity of praise to come in the glorious home prepared for God’s people.

A couple of churches for which I served as accompanist held 5^th Sunday Night Favorite Hymn Sings.  Does anyone remember those?  My fondest memories (and memories of fear as a young pianist!) were of the favorite hymn sings in my home church, First Baptist, Greenville, Alabama. Almost always, someone would request “One Day,” a hymn I don’t remember singing anywhere other than FBC, Greenville, now that I think about it…but what a great, great hymn!  The final stanza sings:

“One day the trumpet will sound for his coming;

One day the skies with his glories will shine;

Wonderful day, my beloved one bringing,

Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!

 

Living, he loved me;

Dying, he saved me;

Buried, he carried my sins far away;

Rising, he justified freely forever;

One day he’s coming! O glorious day!”

 And always, every time there was a favorite hymn sing, precious Mrs. Shirley Thompson would request “Victory in Jesus.” I knew when her hand went up to just go ahead and turn to Hymn 475. She celebrated her ultimate victory in the Lord at a younger age than most as a victim of breast cancer many years ago. Her death, while tragic, was something we grieved with great hope, for that is how she lived her earthly life:

“I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory;

And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea;

About the angels singing, and the old redemption story,

And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.

 

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever,

He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood;

He loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him,

He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.”

 So what happened?  When did we stop singing Heaven songs?  They remind us of the hope we have in Jesus Christ, when the world around us often seems hopeless. The promise of Heaven and the glory to come make the trials of this world bearable.  Oh, how I hope we haven’t deprived the younger generation of these great promises!  It’s much easier to keep trials in perspective with an internal playlist like this:

“Farther along we’ll know all about it;

Farther along we’ll understand why;

Cheer up, my brother, walk in the sunshine;

We’ll understand it all by and by.”

 And my old friend Pam Brooks’ favorite:

“By and by when the morning comes,

when the saints of God have gathered home,

We will tell the story how we’ve overcome,

We will understand it better by and by.”

 Let’s bring back these great songs of the faith! We need the hope, encouragement, and confidence of Christ now more than ever. Jesus is coming soon….oh, wait…there’s another great old gospel song we don’t hear much anymore…but He is, and those of us who know Him should be comforted by that fact!  E’en so, come, Lord Jesus!

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3