Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

• 1 John 4:8-12

We love because he first loved us.

• 1 John 4:19

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“Love is funny, or it’s sad
Or it’s quiet, or it’s mad
It’s a good thing or it’s bad
But beautiful

Beautiful to take a chance
And if you fall you fall
And I’m thinking I wouldn’t mind at all

Love is tearful, or it’s gay
It’s a problem or it’s play
It’s a heartache either way
But beautiful

And I’m thinking if you were mine
I’d never let you go
And that would be but beautiful I know
But beautiful

And I’m thinking if you were mine
I’d never let you go
And that would be but beautiful I know.”

• Jimmy van Heusen, But Beautiful

This song was written when the word “gay” meant “lighthearted enjoyment.”  It is one of those words that I miss in my lexicon.

But I have been having an occasional old song lately as a theme.  I suggest two or three words to change and presto change-o, you have a worship song.  But this is different.

Why do you think God created the heavens and the earth?  He wanted to create us?  Wait!  We are sinners.  We fall short.  But we were made perfect.  It was sin that entered the world when Adam and Eve chose unwisely.

God created the heavens and the earth so that we could have free will, that we would sin and fall short, but then, there would be that few who turned back to God and loved Him because He first loved us.

Few of us can understand infinity.  When God gives something to us, He still has the same amount in His storeroom.  His resources are infinite.  And that applies to Love.

And while God’s heart breaks when love is sad, He rejoices when it is funny.  With God it could never be a bad thing, but it can be quiet, mad, and always a good thing. Love can never be reduced to anything physical, especially sexual acts. Love transcends all that stuff.

We accept Jesus into our heart, maybe at church, and before we get a block from the church, we fail to show love for someone.  My wife’s favorite line when we went home after church was, “Really?!  The church is right there!  I can see the church, but you got angry at a stupid driver who cut you off in traffic.  Maybe he cut you off in traffic because Satan told him to.  Hmmm!  There’s a Christian who just got a fresh supply of love at that church service.  Let’s see if we can drain him of it.”

Okay, maybe her most repeated saying was the first three sentences, but she said the rest often enough.  Most of the time, I could roll the driver’s window down and reach out and nearly hug the church, we were that close, sometimes without leaving the church parking lot, usually someone who did not go to church using the church parking lot as a shortcut to their house.

But God is up there seeing the best we can do on our own as being no better than filthy rags, but He still loves those that choose Him.  He has to give us His Spirit or we would not have any chance at avoiding temptation on our own, but He still loves us.

This song, with a couple of words that do not exactly fit, is how God loves us each day. Love may be funny, sad, quiet, mad, but … beautiful.  Oh, so, beautiful.  Because once we are His, He will never let us go.

Here are Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga singing But Beautiful.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.