Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud. I Corinthians 13:4
Relationship is a two-way street. It is a conversation, an interaction between two people. The closer we grow together, the dynamics of the relationship change. Love alters how we treat them, think about them, respond to them and even how we talk about them. Love really does change everything. It gives us the ability to see through rose-colored glasses – the kind that make the other person look beautiful and flawless, regardless of the facts. Our lenses not only shape our perspective, but they also become our reality.
The amazing thing about God is that He does that with us. When Jesus lives inside us, He attracts God’s favor and affection. It’s as if the Father puts on His “Jesus glasses” and suddenly we look amazing. We become magnets for His love.
1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most magnificent word pictures in all of scripture of what love looks like and how it responds in a relationship. When we put our names into those verses and imagine God speaking His heart and intentions to us, something happens inside us. We feel the warmth of His embrace, and we find rest in His patience, His kindness, and His unwavering devotion.
What if the “love chapter” isn’t just about how God loves us or how we treat each other – a measuring stick we use to assess if we are living up to love’s ideals? What if it reveals how we can love Him?
It’s easy to celebrate His patience, His kindness, His never-give-up faithfulness toward us. But how patient are we with Him? We often grow frustrated when He doesn’t move on our timetable. We question His motives. We demand answers. If we’re honest, we often act as though we are the most important part of the relationship.
But what if love turned in His direction? What if loving God meant believing the best about who He is and about His intentions toward us? What if love toward Him meant trusting that He would never withhold something good if it were truly best for us in that moment?
Too often, we throw quiet tantrums when life doesn’t unfold the way we planned. Yet love expresses itself differently. Love waits. Love trusts. Love enjoys the fellowship of a faithful Friend even in the in-between.
Love empowers us to respond to God in a whole new way. It doesn’t give us license to take out our frustration on the very One who loves us perfectly. If we expect that He relates to us through the framework of 1 Corinthians 13, then shouldn’t that be the very same lens through which we view Him?
Take a minute to reread the Love Chapter, this time through rose-colored glasses, looking toward God. He is, after all, the One who loves us best, and He is Love.