“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” John 15:12
“By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.” John 13:35
Just one more thought about God bearing the pain of separation.
I, Karen, have had people I love and people who have impacted my life to die in the last year. I am experiencing my own personal pain of separation, but I also find myself entering into and sharing the pain others experience because of these deaths. I did not have a spouse, a parent, or a sibling die, but I have dear friends who have. Their hearts hurt, so my heart hurts. That is the way it is when you love. You risk multiplying your pain along with your joy. It is just part of loving in this fallen world.
As I explore the realization that God bears the pain of the separation between Him and His children, my heart that longs to love Him well is opened up to that pain. God is still separated from so many of His children, and the pain of that separation is still acute. When I think of loving Him and how much He loves these lost ones, I have a choice to make. Will I choose to love just the “part” of Him that loves me, or will I choose to love all of Him, even if it means sharing in His suffering for a lost and dying world. It is no small thing to love what He loves. If I say I love Him, then I will love what He loves and His children, saved and lost, He loves beyond measure. If I love His lost children and share His sufferings, how eager I will be to go to any lengths to end the separation and see Father and child reunited, sharing in their joy.
I have failed miserably to love as He loves and who He loves. I can think of so many times I would not get out of my comfort zone or be inconvenienced. Sometimes I think I cannot bear one more pain or emotional burden, especially those of others. I know that means I’m doing it in my own strength and not His, but it’s more than that. I am not gazing at Him, loving Him, and loving what He loves. I now hear Christ’s words to Peter ringing in my head, “If you love Me, feed my sheep.” It’s not just a commandment; it’s a heart call to love Him. If you love Him, you will love His sheep, and then you will enter into His suffering and joy, which will make you fall more in love with Him.
When I survey the wondrous cross by Isaac Watts
See from His head His hands His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ere such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown
Were the whole realm of nature mine
that were a present far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all