Love came down at Christmas

Love came down at Christmas.

Paul wrote this once, "Love never gives up.Love cares more for others than for self.Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.Love doesn't strut,Doesn't have a swelled head,Doesn't force itself on others,Isn't always "me first,"Doesn't fly off the handle,Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,Doesn't revel when others grovel,Takes please in the flowering of truthPuts up with anythingTrusts God always,Always looks for the best,Never looks back,but keeps going to the end."

And love came down at Christmas.

Let's put it another way. Substitute the name Jesus in place of Love.... Jesus cares more for others than for self, doesn't want what he doesn't have, etc.

Then, just for the experiment, substitute your name and see how well the sentence holds true. I suspect not very well. I can only say that in my case, it doesn't hold up at all. 

I give up. I strut (amazingly uselessly and needlessly), have a swelled head, force myself on others, do a lot of the me first stuff, fly off the handle in anger and in fear, keep score of the sins of others like we were scoring a baseball game, participate in the flowering of un-truth on occasion, put up with nothing, let worry eat away at my trust, look for the worst, look back constantly at how things were and threaten to quit about every other hour.

How'mIdoin? If you're keeping score at home, I'm the Chicago Bears spiritually.

But love came down at Christmas anyway. It came down -- no, He came down -- to ensure that despite my worst (and best) efforts to love ceaselessly and failing like a man selling sand in a desert, I could have love and be loved and even on that incredibly large stage that is judgment I could find grace and forgiveness.

Why? Love came down at Christmas.

It's not about me or you or the gifts between. It truly is about Love. 

Love that never causes hate, though it attracts evil.Love that never looks for distrust.Love that overlooks skin color and sexual orientation and politics and all those things that separate us and simply says, "I came down at Christmas, for you."

Love doesn't keep score. It simply scores high on the grace chart.