The Nature of Love: Manger, Cross & Empty Tomb

....there is a certain aspect where the story of love in each of our lives will involve the manger, the cross & the empty tomb, the same as it did with the story of the embodiment of Love.....

Love comes with the manger in that it comes unexpectedly, not in the time or place that you would've planned. It comes often humbly, sometimes unnoticed & without fanfare, like one more homeless couple with no place to stay. Other times it comes with angel choirs. But mostly it appears subtly, but with a sense that it will somehow turn your life upside down.

Love comes with the cross in that love will always bring us to the place of sacrifice, to the place of the glad surrender where we lay down our lives, our everything, for the sake of the beloved. We find that this is done willingly, where it is love that holds us to the cross, to the place of sacrifice. Love comes often with pain, often with it's own torture, but we endure it because of the hope for what is beyond.... the 'joy set before' us....

And love comes with the empty tomb in that there is a place beyond the sacrifice, beyond the pain, where it is so much better, so much more incredible than you could've ever hoped for, ever dreamed of.... eye has not seen, nor ear heard.... Love brings resurrection, life from the dead, life abundant & fuller than you could have thought possible.... Love brings hope & freedom & joy immeasurable, so much so that the loss, the pain of the cross is forgotten, swallowed up in the joy of union with the beloved.