WHERE IS LOVE?

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:16

Lionel Bart’s song, “Where Is Love,” has melancholy lyrics which asks these questions-- “Where is love? Does it fall from skies above? Is it underneath the willow tree that I've been dreaming of? Who can say where she may hide? Must I travel far and wide? Till I am beside the someone who, I can mean something to. Where--where is love?” 

Job felt this way after he lost everything that was important to him. He says in Job 23:8-9, “If I go to the east, God is not there. If I go to the west, I still don’t see him. When he is working in the north, I don’t see him. When he turns to the south, I still don’t see him.”  Job was feeling deserted by God.  I think at times we feel the same way, also. Life is difficult, and we receive blows that are so harsh we ask, “How can a God of love do this to me? Where is He when I need Him the most?”

We can look for some comfort in a bottle of alcohol or pills. We can seek solace in sex, video games, books, shopping sprees, movies, music, sleep, etc. But the problem is these things only bring temporary relief, and just like a love song on the radio, it comes to an end. Could we be looking for love in all the wrong places as stated in the lyrics to another love song by Johnny Lee? 

God reminded Job that He certainly did not desert him. It was obvious in the way God had everything under control, from the rising to the setting of the sun, from the stars hung perfectly into space to the seas held into place, from the creatures of the skies to the creatures of the deep, and from the forming of the baby in the womb to the last breath of the old man. He is the God of the past, the present, future, and eternity. Every breath taken is a love gift from God.

We cannot fully comprehend God. We just need to trust that this God will grace us with His love whether we feel it or not. The Bible says He loves us, and it also says that He is love. Where is love? We need to only look for love in the right place. Where God is--there is love! If we allow Him to finish His work of faith in us, we will see clearly in awe the author and composer of love.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill me with Your love. May I see clearly now the works of Thy hands which are a display of Your love for us. Amen.