A description of the course that explains what you will learn and how it will help you grow closer to Jesus
4 lessons
4 lessons
4 lessons
God held nothing back to make his love known to us
One of my family's favorite movies is Home Alone. I love the scene on the plane where Kevin's mom, Kate McCallister, nearly jumps out of her seat, shouting her son's name. As she desperately attempts to get home, she abandons her vacation in Paris. To get a seat on the earliest flight back to America, she trades her first-class tickets, watch, ring, earrings, five hundred dollars, and even a pocket translator. Then, to get from the airport to Chicago, she endures a long truck ride with the Kenosha Kickers polka band.
It's a moving portrayal of a mother's love for her son. She gladly and immediately gives up anything that would keep her from being with her son.
In the Gospel of John we learn about God's greater love. From the overflowing fullness of God's love, he offers us grace upon grace, starting with his gift of the Mosaic law.
Then God went above and beyond, showing everyone in the person of Jesus what it looks like to fulfill all the requirements of his law. Sometimes we question how God's law could be good. But we haven't understood God's intention correctly until we see how it reminds us of Jesus, because he is the perfect embodiment of God's grace and truth.
In Home Alone, Kevin reasonably wonders if his family loves him. Likewise, sometimes our painful circumstances leave us wondering if God loves us. Because we've never seen God, we wonder if he is absent from our lives—or even exists.
Advent is the unveiling of God's love for us. Had God already loved us? Yes—he gave us the gift of Creation, fashioned us in his image, revealed his identity to his chosen people, gave them wisdom for life, and demonstrated grace upon grace to his people.
But God is love. So God held nothing back to make his love known to us. He emptied himself, became fully human, and entered into the darkness of this world to bring us light and life.
There is no greater love than to give up our lives for the benefit of another.
Advent shows God's uncommon love for us: he gave up everything to be with us.
John 1:16-18
Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father's side—he has revealed him.
What stories help you relate to God's unconditional love for us?
Sometimes we take Advent for granted. What was the cost of Jesus' incarnation?
How could you offer grace upon grace to someone in need of love this week?
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