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God Speaks My Love Language

A Christmas Story

2014 There is a popular relationship book currently being sold titled The Five Love Languages. It is actually a pretty good book. It identifies five ways that people express and receive love: gifts, acts of service, affirmations, affection, and time spent together. The premise is that we need to identify the love languages of those important to us and do what makes them feel loved, not what feels like love to oneself. That makes a lot of sense to me. As I have been pondering the meaning of Christmas this year, it occurs to me that God speaks my love language. I have two primary love languages. The strongest is acts of service. When someone does a simple act of kindness towards me I feel loved. For me, making a cup of tea for me or just walking beside me implies that I am thought of and cared for. Affection does something similar, but not quite as strong. One can be given a hug or kiss out of habit or convention. But a real hug that last a few moments longer than convention dictates feels like genuine love and concern to me. Now, God doesn’t physically make me tea or give me hugs, but he does speak to me in the same way that these human acts do. Christmas is the greatest example of this. When I speak of Christmas, I am speaking of the celebration of the birth of Christ. I am talking about a spiritual season. Yes, the gift giving and time with family are important to me, but that is not my primary focus. Every year I reflect on what that birth means and every year I find some new perspective to dwell on. Christmas is not about the birth of a baby. It is about God taking on human skin and living with us. It is about an amazing Love that is so desirous of a relationship with us that he gave up all he is; the powerful, eternal, majestic creator becoming weak and dependent, confined to time, and subjected to all kinds of evil. It is about the ultimate act of service. It is the total sacrifice of self for the benefit of mankind and the benefit of me personally. When I open myself up and accept this incomprehensible act of service, I am overwhelmed. And as I give into to the God whose love compelled such a drastic act, I am engulfed in his arms and covered with his kisses. I know I am loved simply because he chooses to do so.

2014

There is a popular relationship book currently being sold titled The Five Love Languages. It is actually a pretty good book. It identifies five ways that people express and receive love: gifts, acts of service, affirmations, affection, and time spent together. The premise is that we need to identify the love languages of those important to us and do what makes them feel loved, not what feels like love to oneself. That makes a lot of sense to me. As I have been pondering the meaning of Christmas this year, it occurs to me that God speaks my love language.

I have two primary love languages. The strongest is acts of service. When someone does a simple act of kindness towards me I feel loved. For me, making a cup of tea for me or just walking beside me implies that I am thought of and cared for. Affection does something similar, but not quite as strong. One can be given a hug or kiss out of habit or convention. But a real hug that last a few moments longer than convention dictates feels like genuine love and concern to me. Now, God doesn’t physically make me tea or give me hugs, but he does speak to me in the same way that these human acts do. Christmas is the greatest example of this.

When I speak of Christmas, I am speaking of the celebration of the birth of Christ. I am talking about a spiritual season. Yes, the gift giving and time with family are important to me, but that is not my primary focus. Every year I reflect on what that birth means and every year I find some new perspective to dwell on. Christmas is not about the birth of a baby. It is about God taking on human skin and living with us. It is about an amazing Love that is so desirous of a relationship with us that he gave up all he is; the powerful, eternal, majestic creator becoming weak and dependent, confined to time, and subjected to all kinds of evil. It is about the ultimate act of service. It is the total sacrifice of self for the benefit of mankind and the benefit of me personally. When I open myself up and accept this incomprehensible act of service, I am overwhelmed. And as I give into to the God whose love compelled such a drastic act, I am engulfed in his arms and covered with his kisses. I know I am loved simply because he chooses to do so.

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