Love's Great Height

"I know all the things you do.  I have seen your hard work and your patience endurance.  I know you don't tolerate evil people. ... You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.  But I have this complaint against you.  You don't love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen from your first love!  Turn back to me again and work as you did at first.  If you don't, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches."  Revelation 2:2-5

It wasn't the fall that got me.  It was the sudden stop at the end.  Apparently, when jumping off a 90 foot cliff into a river, it's important to keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.  The jolt of my splat landing was simply unbearable.  

In our verses for the day, Jesus spoke a few words about falling.  It wasn't a fall from a cliff, an airplane or a ladder that fired him up. It was a fall from a much greater height that was troubling him.  This height isn't measured in inches or feet.  This height is not seen with the eyes.  It is, however, more majestic than any mountain top.  It is deeper than any oceans depth.  It probes far beyond the reaches of the grasp of the universe.  It was their fall from love's great height that caused Jesus to raise his voice.  That's right.  Love.

Without love, all words become meaningless noise.  Without love, all activity becomes a worthless waste of time.  It's at love's great height where eternity is engaged.  It's there where one encounters the goodness and the glory of God.  Jesus told the people their fall from love was simply unbearable.  What might Jesus say about our connection to love these days?

Grace and Peace,

Tom

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