“And above all things have fervent love for one another…” (I Peter 4:8).

Love is a word that can evoke so many emotions inside of a person. Some have love for things, some for activities, and some have deep love for people. Love is wonderful. So what if we took the concept of this feeling and brought it back to its purest, most unrelenting form? Not just romantic, gift-giving, or anything related to those physical aspects, but genuine true love for others just as our Heavenly Father has loved us. Remove yourself from the normal, society-based feeling, and learn to genuinely fall in love with true love. You will be changed.

She is seventeen years old. She’s the girl who’s often overlooked or made fun of. Her parents tell her she isn’t good enough. Her magazines tell her she isn’t thin enough. She is looking in every possible place she can to find acceptance. She’s the girl you pass in your high school hallways every single day, but are too busy to stop and talk to. She is searching for something more, but she can’t find it. She longs desperately for someone to simply tell her that she matters. She is lost. Searching. Allow me to introduce you: her name is loved.

He is the boy in a gang. His parents left him. His friends left him. All he has left are these false assumptions that this is the life he has to live. He has lost everything he once believed in. He feels alone, rejected, even hated. The dreams of becoming a doctor or lawyer have been crushed by the people telling him that his circumstances now define him. He is broken. He sees no point in this life he is living. He even sees no point in living. He might be shattered into a million and one pieces, but even though he is broken, he is loved.

In today’s society we are constantly bombarded with stories of horror. Who would have ever thought we would witness mass-shootings in elementary schools or hear news of suicide bombers and terrorist attacks? The world is becoming filled with hatred and desolation. The people who preform these acts are considered criminals, murderers, ones who are utterly hated among men and women. They may be terrorists, they may be abusers, they may be criminals, but in spite of it all they are, they are loved.

He is the One on whom the guilt and sin of the world rested. He suffered a death He did not deserve. I can picture Him hanging there, blameless and tattered. With His arms outstretched, He breathed a silent “I love you this much.” He was mocked, beaten, tortured, tormented, and ridiculed. But most importantly, He was and is love; the kind that cannot be compared. As much as humanity can love and be loved, He reaches far beyond that.

It might seem quite unorthodox to claim that those who are weak, broken, or destructive could ever be cherished, but that same person who sits in a jail cell is one who is loved beyond compare.

Just as Jesus suffered and died on a cross for the loftiest of saints, He also died for the murderer who seems to have fallen just out of the reach of grace. Jesus loved them and loves them. He never stopped loving them, and He never will. The uninhibited, unabashed love the Father loves everyone with is the same kind of consistent love we should all show forth.

So before you write that girl off, walk past that young man in the hallway, or step over the bags of the one living on the streets, take a minute to see things from true love’s point of view. The way to know that love is true is when you love the way He first loved you.

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…” (I Corinthians 13:3-10).

Rachel Thorne was born in Florida and has lived in many places throughout the United States. She is currently attending Urshan College, formerly known as Gateway College of Evangelism. She wants to make a difference and change her world. Rachel is actively seeking the will of God for her life and is willing to do whatever He has for her.