Relationships are something that everyone seems to strive for. From the time a baby is born, a mother works to build that loving relationship. You see her awake during the early hours of the morning comforting the child. To the older couple sitting and having coffee together at the start of the day, to the newly engaged couple- relationships are everywhere. Our culture prompts the idea of romantic relationships more than anything else because it knows that there is power found within a relationship. When two people come together to love and support each other there is power. While our world’s culture is working to glorify the idea of a romantic relationship it is also working to tear down or distort the idea of a relationship with God.

God is oftentimes painted as a dictator who must be obeyed or else a curse and judgment will fall. He is shown as a list of rules and commands that must be obeyed. There is no love to be found in a ruler that is painted in this light. Our God is a God of love, so there must be something that has been lost in translation.

Let’s take it all the way back to the very beginning, in the Garden with Adam. An example of what a relationship with God is found within that early time when it was just the two of them. They worked together to build an intimate and loving relationship. They spent time building trust and learning about one another every day as they walked and talked. Adam learned about the God that created him during those times and God learned about the one he had created. He delighted in those talks. They learned about one another’s emotions as they talked and spent time together. I imagine Adam talked to God about his work with the animals, what he called them, what they looked like, how they had pairs, but he wondered why did not. God listened to the emotions and worked to help Adam because He wanted the one that He loved to be happy.

God and Adam worked to build an emotional, and spiritual relationship in the garden not out of obligation, but out of love. These things were set as a standard of what we need to have in our relationships. We need there emotionally, physically, and spiritually with one another as well as with God in order for the relationship to be healthy and grow. Many people will look at Adam and God’s relationship and say, “If it was so healthy why did God kick them out of the garden the first time that he messed up?” It’s a simple answer. Because God loved Adam.

God was trying to protect Adam from his own sin at that point. God saw that Adam was now cursed to live a life of sin and struggle, as a result of Adam choosing to eat the fruit. God wanted to make a way for there to be a chance of restoration and redemption so He removed Adam from the tree of life, which if eaten would result in Adam living in a state of sin forever. God loved Adam enough to send him away. God knew that their relationship would not be the same as it had been in the garden, for how can it be once sin has entered in, but He wanted to do what was best for Adam and Eve. God put aside His desires for the good of the one that He loved.

That is the God that I serve. My God is a God of love. He is not a dictator with a set of rules that have to be followed because if not death will rain down. No. God has a set of boundaries that he has put in place because He loves us. Just like He did with Adam at the tree of good and evil. And just like Adam, it is our choice whether or not we follow those boundaries that have been put in place. The depth of our relationship with God will ultimately determine if those boundaries are worth adhering to. In order to understand the boundaries God has placed in your life, you must work to build that intimate relationship with God. A relationship where it is just the two of you walking alone together in a secret place.

So if you are wondering the answer to the question in the title- Yes. God IS love.

Akilah is currently an English Major at Arizona State University. She has taken courses in journalistic writing, studying the writings of classical works, as well as the way that languages are used throughout different cultures. In addition, She currently writes lessons for her job, Sunday School class, and personal writings such as poetry and short stories.