Daily Word of Grace # 111 (August 18, 2020)
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was a poet, professor, civil rights activist, and devout Christian. One of her most famous quotes is this one, which she posted on her Facebook page in 2013: “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” There it is…the gospel. Even if other people see barriers to loving you, God’s love for you recognizes no barriers. Even if other people never try to clear any hurdles to love you, God’s love for you has already cleared every hurdle—including your sin, your doubt, your checkered past (or checkered present), or any other hurdle you may try to erect. Even if others will not leap fences to love you, God already has done just that in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even if there are walls between you and other people that none can seemingly penetrate, God’s love for you can—and does—for nothing separates you “from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). The ultimate proof of this love of God that “recognizes no barriers…jumps hurdles…leaps fences…penetrates walls” is found in the death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday: “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And this amazing, unconditional, everlasting love of God will indeed carry you so that in God’s time you too will “arrive at its destination full of hope.”
Love and Prayers,
Dave