Love Experienced

Love. That mysterious God-like substance …in Greek it’s called Agape. Then there are all these verses in scripture talking about love and God, and even that God is love. (1 John 4:8) Now it’s one thing to learn about love intellectually, or learn by experience by the actual giving and receiving of it or the lack of it — especially growing up. Then when one falls in love and marries a person — love is experienced in whole new ways. Then there is the experience of becoming a parent and having a child – which takes the whole experience to another level and dimension.  Much of time love can seem really be messy and hard. Other times love defies all description and touches you in ways you can’t even explain.

To say I know what ‘love’ is .. means that I’ve encountered it and experienced it to a degree. Because… if God really is love there is never a way to totally understand it. It is beyond explanation. Certainly as we grow older — love becomes this thing that is greater than we ever imagined. Certainly as humans we are all love addicts. Why? Because He created us that way. When we don’t have that Agape love we try to fill that need by all sorts of other ways. But none of them ever really satisfy the longing for real Agape love. God is the ONLY One who can truly fill that – space within us. But there are still ways and avenues God uses to connect to His love. One way is through our spouses, children, family, and then even grandchildren. Those love ties are about as strong as we invest in them — but that investment has to be with His Agape love and not from our own wants, desires, and needs — expecting a return. Agape love truly is a mystery of universal proportion.

This last week I had my first experience of meeting my first grandchild — a granddaughter named Isla Oak. I was very excited to meet her as my wife had already ventured the plane flights and trip to meet her several months previous. Now Isla is about 5 months old. Certainly still very much a ‘baby’ in human terms, but she was highly interactive and happy. Laughing, smiling, blowing raspberries, and just all around a perfect granddaughter. Needless to say I was smitten by this little human. I had just entered another dimension of love — I had no clue about. Sure almost all of my friends were already grandparents — and had shared with me their love for their grandchildren. But it’s one thing to know something intellectually and another to experience it on a spiritual, emotional, and physical level.

To be very revealing — my entire life I have encountered things, places, and people as I learned that my senses are somewhat different than most other folks. I ‘feel’ / sense at a level that I’ve come to understand is like a ‘spiritual sensory’ level. I’m fairly sensitive to certain frequencies and can usually tell when they are — inundating to me. So this ability I’ve almost unconsciously used to navigate my world and to ‘read’ people. Now that I’ve been baptized with the Holy Spirit He advices me what I am experiencing. With His help I’m able to navigate with much more confidence and my natural God-given abilities are now utilized In His Service. He also brings His fruit and gifts which only enhance how He created me. I say all of this — to let you know that I experienced His love — in another dimension with Isla — just like when I got married, and had my children, each with it’s own lessons and heart expansion. But with Isla — I’m now old and to experience this purity of love was almost too much for this old love addict. It was like mainlining God’s love straight to my heart and soul. Leaving for the trip back home …states away from my son, daughter-in-law, and new granddaughter was much more highly emotional for me than I ever expected. I tend to not allow my emotions to show much. But with these ‘waves’ — it was too much. Now days afterwards — I now have coined the the term ‘Isla withdrawals’ as to what I’ve been experiencing. I couldn’t figure out why my emotions were so raw – and explosive these last few days. I’ve had to ask for forgiveness from my wife, as she’s received undo emotions from me these last few days.

God has His ways and walking us into His love – at ever increasing dimensions — if we will let Him. God’s love is by far the most powerful thing in the universe. Talk about messing with anything and anyone which it touches … and the encounter will leave you … not the same. He continues to expand my knowledge and experience with His love … and with that .. I learn there is even more beyond what I ever thought or knew before. The paradox of the next room being even bigger than the one you were just in .. and it is never ending. This is God’s love. It will take all of eternity to continue to encounter and just scratch the surface of God’s love.