Advent Week Four: Where Love Is Found
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” — Luke 2:11-12
To explore the aesthetic, beautiful qualities of love is to explore the messy, complex, mysterious, and wondrous place where Love is found: in the birth of Jesus Christ. Love is found—not in ivory towers, or power structures, or city centers—but on the outskirts of a humble town in a box for animal feeding. Love is found—not through the teachings of the religious elite or powerful kings—but through God choosing to partner with a teenage mother, who understands and theologizes (Luke 1:46-56) on the vital role she plays in bringing Love into the world. Love is found in a human baby, the most helpless and vulnerable of creatures among us.
To explore the aesthetic, beautiful qualities of love is to study its very counterintuitive, paradoxical nature. Love is found in all of the places we tend not to look. Love is found in God’s inclusion and empowerment of the places and peoples most easily forgotten. Love is found in humble, messy beginnings.
The season of Advent always brings us back to the origins of where Love is found. And knowing where Love is found re-orients the ways we look for love in our modern environment.
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” — 1 John 4:11
- Where are the places you currently look for Love? Where are you being invited to look for Love?
- How can you create, make, draw, paint sight for the community around you to experience Love?
Words: Bryan Ye-Chung
Images: Herrmann Stamm, Thomas Millot
