by Desiree Bustamante

God gave real love to us at Christmas.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link. 

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 New Living Translation

Everyone wants to be loved. We’ve invested time looking for spouses, sought out friendships and even acquired pets to love. We may have found love that has lasted for years or sought out love that wasn’t returned.

Love can inspire us to do amazing and wonderful things for each other. Some have sacrificed their time, money and even their life because of love for others.

This final week of Advent is a time to reflect on love. Not love as the world sees it, but a true love that outshines and outlasts all other love. God gave us His gift of love in a baby named Jesus on that first Christmas. Love descended from heaven to lay in a rough manger of scratchy hay, wrapped in swaddling cloths intended for sacrificial sheep. Jesus gave up His heavenly throne for an ordinary carpenter’s life, then began a ministry pouring out love to those who were not loved while receiving little love himself. Then He willingly gave the ultimate sacrifice, His very human life, as a gift of atonement for the sins of His children. All because He loves us intimately and wants to spend eternity loving us.

Christ is the perfect gift of love! This special gift is for everyone without any conditions or any restrictions.  He reaches out to you in love every single day. Accept His love without worries because nothing can ever separate you from God’s love. Knowing how much He loves you, have a blessed Christmas full of His awesome love.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Ephesians 3:18 New Living Translation

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado