A Glimpse of Starlight

They say love wins, and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, hasn’t Love already won?

Love won when he stepped into this world from another, gold to dust.

Love won when he walked in simple sandals and coarse clothes among the lowest of the low.

Love won when spit, whips, thorns turned him into a barely recognizable figure.

Love won when the weight of not just beams of wood but all evil pressed down on his bleeding body.

Love won when he was disgraced—that shame that even death cannot erase.

Sound bad? There’s worse. But it was all part of what made the winning so wonderful.

Love won when the sun turned black and the earth tore apart and the women wept.

Love won when he was torn from the one whom he loved, the one who had been with him from before the beginning of time, the one who was him.

Love won when he was finally, utterly alone. Alone in a way no one will ever understand.

But, even then, Love was winning.

Then Love died.

The end.

But Love had won.

The beginning. 

A new beginning, not for Love—for Love has always existed—but for us. A new beginning of many more new beginnings as we can be loved and, in turn, love back. Second chances, mercy, freedom, meaning in life, true joy—all because Love won.

Because true love is offensive, costly, painful, polarizing. Because true victory is won through blood and shame and loneliness and death. Anything less is a cheap fake.

Love has already won, is still winning, can’t be defeated.

… God is love. {1 John 4:8}

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. … {1 John 3:16}