It's funny how we sometimes come to understand things differently when we're older. For me recently, it was something rather insignificant: and old 5 Hour Energy commercial.
The main point of the ad was that 5 Hour Energy was good for when you had "that 2 a.m. feeling," and not just "that 2 p.m. feeling" that they advertised about weeks earlier. The other night I took a 5 Hour Energy at 2 a.m. and I thought about that ad. I realized I really know what "that 2 a.m. feeling" is.
It's easy to understand something at face value, but unless you experience it first hand it's hard to grasp it's true meaning. Love is just like the 5 Hour Energy commercial; until you experience that 2 a.m. feeling, you can't fully appreciate the need it's filling for you and you can't fully know what it means to you.
Until you put your feelings out there, until you actively trying to love somebody, and until you make an effort to embrace and experience love from another person, you'll never truly appreciate God's love, the need for love that He knows we have, and what God's love for us truly means.
It's easy to read the words of John 3:16 and 1 John 4:8 at face value, but they'll make a whole lot more sense after you realize how late your parents used to stay up worrying about you. Those words will come to fruition when your best friend needs a place to stay for a few nights and you welcome them in. You'll truly get why God loves you when your grandma is dying of Alzheimer's and you tell her that you love her whether she knows who you are or not.
God actively seeks to love us, and He showed us that through His son. He shows us that today through His church. God also actively seeks love from us; that is why He gave us free will, so that we can choose to show Him genuine love instead of being forced to "love Him back." God put His feelings out there to us, if you will, through His word, and it's up to us whether or not we love or reject Him.
So don't shy away from actively seeking out love experiences. Go take your dad to lunch. Go with that girl or guy to the zoo. Show up at your neighbor's house with a plate of cookies. Let that kid from church mow your grass, even if it doesn't look perfect. Because until you make yourself experience moments of love and of loving others, you won't fully understand why and how much God loves you.
