Pause In Advent #4

Before I forget – thank you Floss for organising these Advent Pauses. I know that many of us have found them all to be a real blessing as we prepare our hearts for Christmas. It has been especially  good to read Pauses from blogfriends who have joined the party for the first time this year. And thank you too, to all of you who’ve commented on my Pause Posts – I’m really glad people have found them helpful.

My final Advent post this year is my Loving Angel – who has the tagline “love, pure and simple”

Last week, Bob was in conversation with someone who said he believed there were only two forces in the world which motivated people – greed and sex. Bob suggested there was a third – love

I think Bob is absolutely right – and Christmas is all about love, love for friends and love for family. It’s also showing about love to those we don’t know, but wanting to ‘share the Christmas spirit’ with those in need. Charities receive a high proportion of their annual income over this period. We often sing the carol ‘Love came down at Christmas’

The angel is holding a red rose- for generations that flower has been the symbol of love. It is a good symbol, because it has many things to show us about the nature of true love…

• love is beautiful - and the people who see the lovely rose will marvel – it brings joy to the recipients, and onlookers. So true love is admired [and maybe even envied by those who do not experience such a treasure]
• love is vulnerable – the delicate red petals will bruise easily – and the recipient of love should respect the cost to the giver, and not treat it lightly.
• love is strong – a rose is not an ‘annual’ plant, which needs to be grown afresh every year – but the rosebush goes on growing year after year.
• love is unconditional – even in the dark, you can smell the beautiful perfume of the rose. Even when life is tough and circumstances are bad, or you make a mess of things, the true beloved goes on loving you through everything.
• love is painful – as the thorns can scratch and pierce the hand of the person holding out the rose, so true love can be costly, and cause pain to the giver. But because this love is unconditional, the true beloved will bear that pain.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another