God is Love. This is the Message of Christianity.

Logos, the word made flesh, is Love. God created by means of Logos. God’s love went out to all the creation, all things, all creatures. God loves all creatures. Logos, Christ, the Word, loves all creatures. For the creative act is the act of love.

When the incarnation occurs, it is an act of love. For God decides to take on human flesh so that He can teach humans, so overwhelmed with hate, how to love. He does so throughout a person’s whole life. He loves, even those who torture and kill Him. He teaches us not just through words, but with actions, how to love.

When we follow His teaching we extend love to other creatures. This is what Mark meant when he said that Jesus believed we should take the word to the whole creation. We do so through love of the whole creation.

His death and resurrection are a symbol for us. It shows us that we will die in love and be resurrected in love. This is a sign for all living creatures. If God creates in love, Christ shows us that all things created in love will die in love and be resurrected in love.

Eternal life is really eternal love. It is not about time. It is about being in the presence of absolute love in a way we have only been able to approximate during our lives.

God shows His love in death.

God’s will is always present.

This truth should enable me to deal with contingencies of life like the death of a dear one.

I recently lost my little pup named Ted.

I realize that it was God’s will and blessing that allowed me the happenstance of seeing Ted at a puppy shelter and adopting him. I don’t think it was arbitrary chance. It was God’s will. And if it was God’s will, then it was God’s will for Ted to die at an early age. Just like when parents lose a loved one, a parent, child, or unborn fetus. Parents suffer through miscarriages. The fetus is an initial blessing that joins the parents to new life, and in the tragedy of losing the fetus it joins them even more. The fetus’s life is still life, still a blessing. Like having a puppy. It is a blessing to find and adopt the puppies we have, but life leads to death. As I experienced when Ted died, it can be death that occurs within the embrace of love, with people who love us. This is God’s will, too. It is all part of accepting life. Accept God’s will, which involves such incredible diversity and change, blessings, and sufferings, too. But it is not my will, it is God’s will.

Accept the presence of the Lord God in your life and abide by His will. This is the story of love.