The other face of love

When I first get to know God, I heard that He is love, and He loves all the people in the world including me, regardless of my condition.

When I later getting to know Him more, I learn that knowing that He loves me in my mind affects me not so much compared to realizing that He truly loves me in my heart.

Then lately, I learn that to know Him is really to know Love, in all of it rich aspects, all of the beauty and the power and the hope and...(you may fill the blank)... it brings.

Of all those lessons I learn about love from Love Himself, one that really spoke to my heart is about the other face of love.

Supposed love is shown in one surface of coin, then have you ever wonder what is the other side of the coin? What is the face of the other side?

Now, before we think too hard into the theological side, let's slow down a bit and ask ourselves something which we -if we ever in love or just have a slight crush- will face: how much will you risk for love?

I believe everyone, as long as you've been alive in this fallen world, ever experience the pain of rejection, to a certain degree. Some even experience it before they get the chance to see the world (read: aborted child). Some, appears to be never experience the pain, yet live in bitterness or simply apathy towards all forms of love. Some, learning from pain in the past, simply live in fear, trying to be as careful as possible, not to face the same pain again. Some, triumphant over the pain of rejection in the past and able to love again...and receive love in return in the end.

What I learn from Love Himself, is something struck me into the deepest part of my heart.
He, the One who created us, give us the opportunity to receive or reject Him. Not only that, He even let us full freedom to choose, out of His noble characters, though He already knows the outcomes even before we choose.

I always thought that John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.~NKJV) is a verse describing the great love of God. Not that it's not true, but now that I learn the truth (God opened my eyes actually), the verse which describe the greatness of God's love is first found verses before that one ever written. It describe the risk God took to show His love:

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ~John 1:11 (NKJV)

God knows all things before it happens, yet He still came. Imagine this: supposed we are in His place, will we still come? Will we risk our heart to be rejected? Often, when we face with the choice to love and not to love, we know we have to take some risk. Our typical reaction is, we take the chance if we regard the good possibilities will come. Let me illustrate this to give you a better picture.

When someone have a crush or falling in love, what may happen is:

For some people, simply taking decision to respond based on feelings or some silly yes-no mechanism (like pulling the sepal of a flower and see where it ends : he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, and so on).

Others, trying to be a bit sophisticated, try to analyze all the sayings and attitudes and finally come to conclusion (OK, she said this: is she up to something?; She smiles to me ten times this week: that means something, right?)

Some, simply applying the law of probabilities: if I continue on, I have listed down 5 possible scenarios :
1.we may end up madly in love with each other,
2.he/she may like me, but I'm not towards him/her
3.both of us just being friends with each other, no intense feelings of whatsoever
4.I like him/her, but he/she doesn't like me
5.both of us don't like each other
Now, out of 5 probabilities above, the bad outcomes only 2 (for some, the bad ones are scenario no.2 and no.4; for others, no.4 and no.5). I got 3:2 probability; conclusion: I'll go on with this.

I can give many more examples, not only for man-woman relationship, but also between friends, family, etc. Not only in the preliminary stage, but also in different stage and depths of relationship. But the point I want to stress here is that, we want to avoid the pain of rejection as much as possible. Not that we don't want to love, but we just don't want to love with the pain of being rejected. If we somehow figure out that it will be an unrequited love, we won't take the chance. But how about God?

As always, God amazed me with the depth of love He shows--something that I could never completely understand, yet grateful to get just a glimpse of it. God didn't do it the way we did-- thank God! HALLELUJAH!

He still came, even though He knew, He will be rejected. He loves us, when we are completely unworthy of His love, as written:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.~Romans 5:8 (NKJV)

He did not withheld His love, and said things like this: OK, I want to see that you repent first, then I'll come. Or, He said: I want to see you come begging, kneeling, crawling, asking for mercy that I will consider to come and show you mercy. Thank God He didn't do it, 'cause we are unable to come to Him without He first come to us.

So, finally we come to the answer of the question above. What is the other face of love? What is the character of True Love, which God demonstrate to us undoubtedly?

HUMILITY

God, given that He is God, the Almighty, the Ruler of this Universe, who has all the power, who owns everything, is humble enough to come to one of His created beings, becoming one of them, to show His love. He comes to show His love, to share His thought, to give His whole heart...to risk to be rejected.

To the fallen beings who don't even have a slight idea what it is to be truly loved in the first place. To the ones who not only can choose not to appreciate it, but can also despise it with all their might. He continued on with His mission, till the cross, because He has full love, not partial love. Finishing love, not discontinuance love. Love which prevails till the end, no matter what the cost, no matter what the risk. Even when He already knew....

When He taught me this, the question the Spirit whispered into my heart was : how humble are you to love? How far will you go for love? How much will you risk, regardless of the responses of those you love? Then He continued on with something I won't forget:

I am perfect in love, for I am humble enough to be fully rejected.

The greatest rejection that Lord Jesus ever experience is not the coming from the people. The greatest rejection Lord Jesus ever experienced is the rejection of Father, when He bore our sin on the cross. Remember, Jesus have a perfect love bond with the Father. When He chose to come to this earth, He's not only risk to be separated from the Father He loves (as well as from the Father side--Jesus is His beloved Son). He also took the risk to be rejected totally from the Father, to bear our sin, for our sake, His beloved people. While for Father, nothing hurts more than to see His beloved Son to be rejected.

To be rejected by those you don't love is one thing, to be rejected by the one you love the most is another thing.

Then, afterwards, even until today, He still risks to be rejected by the people He created in the first place, by us...

This truth not only taught me about the other face of true love, it also taught me the key to true humility. Humble person loves perfectly. You can never have one without another. And you can never get that on your own, you need True Love, True Humble God, to show you, to teach you, and to give His love in your heart to love the way He does to you. Are you willing to take the risk?

Father God, thank You for loving us completely, even though it means You had to give up your beloved Son; Lord Jesus, thank You for demonstrating God's love, even though it means You have to be rejected, by Father Himself and by Your people; Holy Spirit, please forgive us, for many times, we have grieved You by rejecting the loving touch of You which will lead us to repentance. Thank You, for teaching me the other face of love. Help me, to love You with all my heart and my might, and to extend Your love, which I have received from You, to others. In the name of loving Jesus I pray, amen.