God Is Love, All the Way Down

Once, a long time ago, an old man named John sat down to write a letter.

His hair was white and his hands were slow. But he had something to tell the people he loved, and he could not keep it inside one more day.

So he dipped his pen, and here is what his heart said.

Dear ones. Beloved. Listen.

Let us love each other. Because love comes from God.

John wrote that because he had figured something out, something so big it changed everything.

It was not only that God does loving things, though he does, more than you could ever count. It was bigger than that.

God is love. All the way down. There is no place in God where the love runs out and something else begins, no cold corner, no bottom of the well where you might finally find a "but."

It is love, and then more love, and then love again. Forever down.

And here is how John knew.

This is how God showed his love, he wrote. He sent his only Son into the world, so that we could live through him.

God did not wait for us to be lovable first. He did not stand far off with his arms crossed, waiting for us to get good enough. While we were still afraid of him, still hiding, still sure we were too small and too spoiled to be wanted, he sent Jesus. Jesus came right down into our mess and our dark, and he loved us all the way to a cross.

Loving is what God does because love is what God is.

Now, child, lean close, because John wrote the next part for people who are afraid.

Maybe you know that feeling. The worry, late at night, that if anyone saw all of you, the inside parts too, they would stop loving you.

John knew that fear. And he wrote this:

There is no fear in love. Perfect love throws fear right out the door.

When real love walks into the room, fear has to leave. It cannot stay, because love is too big and love takes up all the space.

And the love strong enough to throw your fear out the door is not your love. You don't have to make it. You don't have to be strong enough.

We love, John wrote, because he loved us first.

First, before you knew him, before you tried, before you were good.

He loves you the way you love your very favorite thing in all the world. And every single one of his children, he loves exactly that much.

So you can stop being afraid now. Love himself came looking for you, and found you, and he will never, ever let you go.