Love

He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you,

but will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17b)

In Zephaniah 3 God is gushing with love, a redemptive, restorative, celebratory love. It’s beautiful that God rejoices over his people with singing, and I immediately think of Song of Songs with all it’s exultations of love: ‘his banner over me is love’ (2:4).

Have you ever had someone singing over you, or experienced someone’s exuberant love poured out even for a moment? How about this: I was walking along the high street in the town my husband and I grew up in, it’s a straight main road with varying levels of dying shops on each side. We were heading out for a coffee when all of a sudden my husband stopped, turned to face me and lifted his voice in song. I giggled with embarrassment and joy all at the same time. It was only for a few seconds, but in the moments his love for me was unquestionable, I mean who would just do that for anyone!

God’s love for us is bold, brave and unquestionable, and during Advent this is the kind of love we are waiting for.

In Zephaniah though, this love hasn’t come without a cost. The prophet is declaring God’s action at a time when Judah has turned their affections towards other ‘gods’ and been living in unjust ways, and God isn’t exactly happy with various other nations either. Zephaniah calls for repentance and restoration through a remnant, and announces God’s redemptive plan for all nations. God’s love is constant, but whether we dwell in the delight of his love isn’t. We as humans, have the awful tendency to turn away from love, to put the wall up and to go our own way. The cost of love is vulnerability – dropping our walls and letting love in, not only to melt us with it’s outpouring but to transform us into love’s likeness itself.

This kind of love isn’t easy for everyone, perhaps in the past we’ve been scarred by love in one of its many forms, or we have never received this kind of love before so it’s daunting and unknowable, or perhaps we are just not hard wired to receive love in this way. We all have our reasons, but I think a genuine love that is unquestionable is something we all long for.

At Christmas we remember the love that came down to dwell amongst us, to pitch his tent in our back garden, to tabernacle with us (check out John 1). Even when we put our walls up, Jesus comes to find us. Some of us sadly act like the pharisees and add another brick or two to our wall, some of us are curious like Nicodemus and knock a brick down to ask a question, some of us are like Peter and tear down that wall to discover Jesus, and some of us are like Mary Magdalene and find our longing for freedom met as Jesus tears down our walls. Whoever you are at this point in time, we have a saviour who is willing to make a home in our lives if we let him, who takes great delight in us and who sings over us. Let’s keep taking each brick down, or let Jesus tear the whole wall down as we let love itself in this advent and Christmas.

Jo Allen

Director South West