A Story of True Love

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."-1 Corinthians 13

Okay, so I know this blog is mainly supposed to be about my book. But let's get real here, it's a "holiday" today! And I decided I'm gonna try to post one every holiday.

Valentine's Day. The Ultimate Couples' Day. Or as my friend likes to call it: "Single Awareness Day". But I guess whatever name tag you're gonna stick on the fourteenth of February, pretty much everyone anywhere in America will be seeing the same thing. Tons and TONS of candy and flowers. I'm talking chocolate. Ghirardelli and Godiva, See's Candy and Russell Stover, or maybe just some Hershey's Kisses and M&M's. Is your mouth watering yet? People tend to get all wrapped up in the balloons and teddy bears, and cards and ribbons; and don't get me wrong- I think love is a sweet thing. But every year I like to remember the truest love of all: God's love. 

Let me tell you a little bit about this lover of mine. He may not be like any of the "Taylor Swift Guys'" that you've heard about in her songs. (Though they are quite charming, aren't they?) No, he doesn't just talk politics with my papa. We don't fight 'till 2 am, and he's not the quarterback for the high school football team. No; he's much more than that.

He sends me a sunrise every single morning, a sunset in the evening, and a beautiful white moon to light my night. He gives me flowers in the spring and ruby red cherries during the hot summers. They say that if he had a wallet, then my picture would be in it. If he had a fridge, my drawings would be on it. Let's face it: he's CRAZY about me. I mean, he's ultimately perfect. He knows exactly what's on my mind before I say a word, and he's the shoulder that will always be there when I need someone to cry on. He's all powerful, indescribable, creator of the heavens and earth, as well as of mankind. His finger holds back the mighty seas, he's placed each star up in the sky. He's all knowing, blameless and holy, the beginning and the end. That's my God.

And then there's me. Which is a completely different story. Let's just say, nobody's perfect. Sometimes I forget to call him when I say I will. A lot of the time I forgot he's even there, and chase after other lovers and things to satisfy me. I have to admit, once in a while I get ashamed of him in public. And not only that. I'm a BIG sinner. I lie; I cheat; I even have thoughts of jealousy, hatred, and deceit. And I'm just talking on a daily basis. In fact, if you were to add up all times I've messed up like that, even the little times, even if I only sinned once a day, you'd get 365 sins a year. Multiply that by about seventy, and you got all my sins from a lifetime. And that's not good. 

Because here's the thing. It's one hundred percent true, and there's no escaping it. No matter what good deed you do, no matter how many people you save, how many lives you change, how much money you have or donate to the poor, nothing you do on your own can ever get you to heaven. Nothing. It doesn't matter if your daddy was the head preacher of the church. Doesn't matter how many Nobel Peace Prizes you've won, and it won't even make a difference if you're parents are the strongest Christians in all of Southern California. Because that one little time you sinned, that one tiny time you had a deceitful thought, that one time you lied to your parents is enough to keep you from ever seeing the gates of heaven. And because we're sinners, our penalty is an eternity in Hell. But you say, "What about my friend? She's messed up hundreds of times, at least I'm better than her." That's the thing: God doesn't compare you to your friends, or any other human. Your standard is next to Jesus Christ, the holy and blameless son of God. And the truth is, compared to him, we're filthy. Because God is a righteous judge, he can't let sinners into heaven. What kind of judge would he be if he let a murderer escape his penalty of jail? And so you wonder, what hope do you have then? What's the point of anything, if you can never make it to heaven on your own?

On your own. There was a way, a way for sinners like us to make it to heaven. And that would be if someone, someone completely holy and blameless and pure, would take our place as a sinner. If someone completely undeserving would step in and pay the huge penalty for your death, instead of you, then you'd be free as a slave to sin. Well someone did do that. Jesus, as an ultimate example of the greatest love, laid down his LIFE on the cross for you. And it couldn't have been easy. These people took Jesus, one of his closest friends betraying him, and they mocked and beat him. They took this thing called the Cat of Nine Tails. It was this whip with many tails coming off of it. Each one was embedded with bone, rock, glass, and nails, so that each time they whipped him, the pieces would dig into his flesh, and rip open his back. They did this thirty nine times, because forty would have killed him. They beat him in the head and stripped him down, mocking and destroying him. Then they made him carry a heavy wooden tree on his back to the "Place of the Skull", where he could hang naked and shamed in front of the entire city. They took metal nails and hammered them through his hands and ankles, to keep him hanging. Then they drove a crown made of thorns through his bloody skull, and gambled for his possessions.

King of kings, Lord of lords. Savior, hero, and Christ. He could have easily sent them all to Hell. He could have destroyed his enemies, and ripped himself off of that cross. And you know what Jesus did then? He yelled towards heaven, "God, curse them! Kill them! Get vengeance! Destroy them." 

No; he didn't say anything like that at all. He looked towards the heavens and he cried out to God, "Father, have mercy on them." Have mercy on them. These murderous people that had crucified him because of their deep hatred towards him. They wanted nothing to do with him. They wanted to murder him. There he was, Jesus Christ, Messiah and Savior, sent to save these people from their sins. Sent to rescue them from the chains that tied them down to Hell. You see, anyone who sins belongs to Satan. When Jesus died, he paid the full price with his own blood, doing whatever it would take to free you from those chains.

I think about it, and I can't even begin to imagine a love as great as this. How could anyone love me, just a dirty sinner? The Bible talks about a love like this. In John 15:13 it says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends." Maybe it's easy to die for someone you love. Maybe you'd lay down your life for your mom, or your dad, or your best friend in an instant. But what about a criminal? Would you lay down your own life for the sinner that took your parent's life away? Would you give up everything and be willing to step in and take the place of a person who hates you? Jesus did that when he died on the cross. He did it to pay the price of freedom for everyone. He paid the bondage to free you from Satan's grasp with his very own blood. Now that we're free, we don't have to go on sinning anymore. We're free. And that's the thing, he would have still done it if you were the only one here on earth. He would have done it for you alone. He loves you that much. He looked at you and said, I want THAT person in my family. I want them in my family, and I will do anything to bring them here. So he did it. And he did it for you.


We have hope. We have hope because of God's continual faithfulness to us, and most of all, because after three days of being in the tomb, Jesus rose from the dead. He is alive today, bringing us eternal salvation! The Bible says that, "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."-Romans 10:9. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, that he rose again and is Savior, and who confesses their sins to God and accepts him into their heart can be saved. We now have the opportunity to spend an eternity of complete joy and happiness in heaven with our Savior, and all we have to do is believe. That's what I live for every day, and that's why I thank God every Valentine's Day for sending his son to die on the cross. I know where I'm going, and I know what I'm living for. What about you? And, true, you might read this and think, "Sure, that's a nice inspirational story." But it's not just a story; it's reality. And the ending hasn't been finished yet. It's your choice. Have you accepted him? Or will you continue to live on without it?

Don't waste your life missing out on this love. Don't wait out to accept him into your heart. Believe and pray. He did it for you. 

Now that's what I call a love story :)


Love you all, and have a very happy Valentine's Day!

Blessings,

Karisa