^“7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶ So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.” 1 John 4:7-16

“Love’s as fierce as fire, Love is fire. All sorts—infernal heat

Clinkered with greed and pride, Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,

Laughing, even when denied And that empyreal flame,

Whence all loves came.”   (Poem “Love’s As Warm As Tears”, C.S. Lewis)

“What does not satisfy when we find it was not the thing we were desiring. IF water will not set a man at ease then be sure it was not thirst, or not thirst only, that tormented him: He wanted drunkenness to cure his dullness, or talk to cure his solitude, or the like. How, indeed, do we know our desires save by their satisfactions? Let us conclude then that what you desire is no state of yourself at all, but something other and outer. Knowing this you will find tolerable the truth that you cannot attain it. That the thing should be (yet acquired), is so great a good that when you remember “it is” you will forget to be sorry that you can never have it. Wanting is better than having.” (“Love’s As Fierce As Fire”, “The Pilgrim’s Regress”, “Wisdom-Exoteric”, from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis)

 Wanting is better than having – desiring is better than acquiring. Can we gather together all our heart’s desire at one time? Is this not Vanity? Insanity? Profanity? If we want life – then we desire Christ – and though fully acquiring Christ will never be possible until that day Christ welcomes us into our eternal home, we can have brief encounters with Christ every day. How? Through prayer…Holy Communion…and in service to others.

Pastor Dave