“WE LOVE

BECAUSE HE

FIRST LOVED

US.”

(1 John 4:19)

“FIRST LOVE”

by Debbie Allen

“GOD IS SO STRONG…and SO KIND…and SO POWERFUL!”

“GOD IS SO STRONG…and SO KIND…and SO POWERFUL!”

These are the words that flowed so beautifully from my Granddaughter, Chelsea’s mouth one day after I returned home from work.  In her dimpled hand was her Daddy’s cell phone, and on it played the melody that stirred her little heart to sing out these words of Truth.  She didn’t just sing them…she belted each word out!  Chelsea did so with unbridled passion, even choreographing her own 60-second dance segment in the middle of my kitchen.  Grammie and Grandpa’s hearts melted right there on the spot.  We stood there clapping, tears rolling down our cheeks, as we watched our little girl’s spontaneous joy and love for God spilling into the room non-stop!

February…or Loveuary, as Hallmark Movies have come to call it, has been defined as, “A month to celebrate love in its entirety.”  But not even Hallmark’s most beloved Valentine movie ever…could capture my heart the same way Chelsea’s spontaneous 60-second song-and-dance routine did in my kitchen that day! To me, her passionate routine was a great picture of what life looks like when God is still your First-Love.  Her song reflected the words of The One living down inside of her beautiful three-year-old heart.  Strong Words…True Words…Uncompromising Words.  Jesus’ Words.  Words that she both responded to and then chose to share passionately with those around her.

After finishing her dance, Chelsea pulled me down close to her and whispered, “I love Jesus,” into my ear.

“Why do you love Jesus?” I questioned her, just to hear the sweet response she always gave me.

“I love Jesus because Jesus loves me!”

Then she again broke out into an encore of her song and dance, “God is so Strong and so Kind and so Powerful!”

Our love for God is the very foundation on which all of our lives are meant to be lived. Each of us was created by the Hand of Love…to live a life of love. Chelsea’s genuine passion and love for her God was so beautiful and so captivating to be around that day…especially after having spent the day navigating the ‘harshness’ of my work world. Too often, our preoccupied minds and overburdened hearts make us forget that we were made to be loved. We acknowledge our need to be known and loved by our spouse, family, and friends surrounding us, but have a tendency to lose touch with the deepest longings within us to be loved by our Creator…the Lover of our Souls. After all, God’s first and greatest commandment in the Bible is to ‘Love Him First.’  Our calling in life is to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). This is the essence of what we should be striving for in our everyday lives. And on those days when this broken world we live in tries to blur what it looks like to ‘Love God First,’ I think of little Chelsea and her passionate song and dance in my kitchen that day; and am reminded of why I, too, love Jesus…because Jesus Loves me!  From now into eternity, choosing God as our First Love is, and always will be, our deepest response back to Him, “The One Who First Loved us!”

“We love because He first loved us.”

(1 John 4:19)