by Carley

I was driving with my teenage sons the other day and they were listening to a random Spotify playlist. The song “Where is the love” by Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas came on, a song I haven’t heard in over a decade. The words gripped me as I listened and sang along.
Where is the love?

It is strange to write about love when our world is suffering in the way that it is. Maybe it’s because of our tendency to think two things can’t coexist. If the world is suffering, it must be void of love. This internal conflict takes place, forging in us a need to dig a little deeper and ask,

Where is the love?

Jesus entered the world as a baby in Roman ruled Palestine, born to a Jewish teenager. With his birth, a decree was made by Herod that all baby boys under the age of two be murdered, in an effort to kill the Messiah. I can almost hear the guttural wails of the mothers and fathers who loved these babies dearly. Jesus came as love in the midst of darkness, oppression and injustice. His birth juxtaposed to every earthly system, to every earthly kingdom. 2000 years later, it still is.

Where is the love?

We look around at the world today and we have the same question. I wonder if part of the problem is that we see love as a commodity. We think we can hold it in our hands and then wonder when it slips through our fingers. We treat love like we treat power, a weapon we yield. And then we stare at the world around us and scratch our heads. We look inside and come up empty.

Where is the love?

The manger whispers to us, “right here.” It’s not fluffy holiday sentiment. It’s not bypassing pain and suffering to get to love. Love is right there in the middle of it. It is the fire burning in the darkness, warming our hands and lighting our way.

Where is the love?

We don’t need to look any further than Jesus. In the song he writes “If you never know truth then you never know love.” And the truth is that we are loved in the exact state that we find ourselves. The love starts in us the moment we receive the goodness he gave to us. That no matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been or how far away we’ve walked, we are loved. When we no longer see enemies and opponents but humanity desperate to be loved. That is how we become love. It starts in us. Every good thing we want to see in the world. Every act of peace, every stance of hope. It starts in us. We let God plant the seeds in us first and then let love grow wildly.

Where is the love?

Jesus is love incarnate.

He became so that we could too.