God's powerful, singing love

                           A little food for weekend thought--
     With our daughter getting married in less than a week, I've been thinking a lot about "love."         What a blessing to be loved!  To be loved not only by another person (though this is unquestionably one of God's choicest gifts to be savored and treasured), but to be loved by God.
     Can we truly grasp the earth shattering significance of that?   We are not just "loved;"  we are the beloved of the Creator and Sustainer of the far-flung galaxies.  To be the beloved of such a One staggers the imagination.  What else could possibly compare?
     C.S. Lewis writes: "When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some 'disinterested,' because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love.  You asked for a loving God: you have one.  The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect,' is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes.  How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes."
     Yet how often does our conception of how much God "loves" us depend upon whether we feel like He's giving us what we want?  Oh my, our understanding of the unfathomable depth and riches of His love falls so infinitely far short, doesn't it?   Truth be told, we'd often settle for that "senile benevolence" who "drowsily" seeks our short-term superficial happiness rather than our long-term holiness.  Make us happy, Lord, we whine.  Make our children happy.  Take away all their problems and give them an easy, cushy life.  
     No--that's not Love!  That's not the white-hot fire of perfect Divine Love that burns with holy intensity and seeks the ultimate and absolute best for His dearly beloved!  Forgive us, Father, for seeking so little when You have so much more.  Forgive us for settling for the mud puddles of temporary success and comfort and pleasure...when You are offering us the crystalline lakes and fathomless oceans of Your glorious Love.
     Remind us, too, Lord, what Your Love unleashes...Your power.  Your grace.  Your forgiveness.  Your joy.  William Gurnall says "God's love for His saints sets His power in motion.  He who has God's heart does not lack for His arm.  Love rallies all other affections and sets the powers of the whole man into action.  Thus in God, love sets His other attributes to work; all are ready to bring about what God says He likes."
     Such is the supernatural power of God's love!  How dare we forget!  And what a comfort and encouragement to recall all that His perfect, powerful love makes available to us.
     So today, might we remember His love.   Rejoice in His love.  And rest in His love.
     "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing." (Zeph.3:17)  
     A God who even sings His love...incredible.  Might we hear His love song for us this day...and rejoice and rest in Him.  His love will never fail you.  Never.  To God be the glory.