There’s an old song that has the line in it: “Looking for love in all the wrong places”. The phrase, “Looking for Love”, is a common one and we all know the idea behind what’s being said. It carries the idea that Love is a thing we want to have from others. It comes to us from another person. This phrase is implying that Love is outside of us and that is why we are looking for it.
We can read about the search for love in the Bible since love is the central and dominant message of the whole Bible story. Within these pages, the creator is described as forming things out of His being and character. Just like any artist, musician, author, designer, architect or movie director, His personality is all over the final product. This is how we can understand some things about the God of the Bible. His creation has love at its core because God is love. This means that love is at the centre of everything ever made.
A reply to the phrase, “Looking for Love”, would be to say, “it’s within each of us because we were made that way”. But, if loving is our design, why is it sometimes so hard to love? Living out from the love from within has many challenges and there can seem to be a bunch of reasons to stop loving.
Thankfully, we can turn to the Bible to discover God’s love and, with Christmas fast approaching, we get to see love in its full unrelenting wonder. Jesus came to show us what love looks like and has promised us the power to never stop loving, ever.
Let’s look for love in all the right places.
Peter Chase
College Chaplain • Pastoral Care
