But God...

 He was selfish, narcissistic, and devoid of compassion.  He cared for no one and used people for his own pleasure.  One day, he was given the opportunity to help a poverty stricken person…he failed miserably!  

The situation was not what it seemed, as the one who was seemingly in poverty was actually a personage of great authority and stature.  The selfish one was given a unique punishment.  He was driven away from society and given a limited time to learn how to love and thereby earn the love and trust of another.

You may have already guessed who the character is…yes, it’s The Beast from Beauty and The Beast.  A spoiled prince was punished, transformed into a beast, for his lack of love and caring, yet he learned to love through a series of circumstances involving a lovely young lady, who by the way, learned to love him.  The climax of our story comes when Beast dies, and Belle expresses true love for him.  Even though dead, our Beast is resurrected and changes his habits and lifestyle…a true love story.

 

Although Belle and Beast are make believe, God has given us a true love story in the personage of Jesus.  Yes, Jesus is the main character in our love story.  We…that is…you and I are part of a continuing story of great love on the part of Jesus.  You see, we were dead in sins.  Yes!  We were actually dead to this world in sin! 

But God….

Don’t you love those words!  But God…He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to resurrect us…make us alive.  We didn’t deserve it, in fact, we had done nothing to encourage Jesus’ help on our behalf.

 Read this verse with me:

 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses (Sins), made us alive together with Christ. Ephesians 2:4-5

 

Here is the promised love story and we are characters in the story.  In fact, Jesus came to our world to show us love beyond understanding.  We were selfish, narcissistic, and devoid of compassion…But God…

 

We were headed in the wrong direction, living lives for ourselves, marching to tunes of distant drummers…But God…

 

Did you catch that?  We were the culprits, the villains, and God still came to us in the persona of Jesus.  His love was so great that in spite of my sinful desires, Jesus died for me.  He loved me, died for me, and arose from the grave…for me!

 

Amazing!

 

Let’s go back to Belle and The Beast.  Belle loved, not because Beast deserved it.  Belle’s nature was to love and give that love freely to Beast.

 

Exactly!  God loved.  God is love!  That is His nature!  We are the recipients of God’s amazing love.

 

Amazing love!  How can it be

That you my God shouldst die for me?

Amazing Love, How can it be…

 

But God…

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