Love looks like love. I know this may sound like repetition, but it’s not. Sometimes, someone calls something love, and just looking at it, you know it’s not love. Maybe obsession, maybe sympathy, but surely not love. So what does love actually look like?
There are many definitions of love, but one thing everyone agrees on is that love always includes giving. Love always gives. Scripture records in John 3:16 that God showed His love by giving us His only begotten Son. Humanity received the greatest gift on the day Jesus was born.
However, before giving gifts, one of the ways we identify love is through confession—a genuine one. In Jeremiah 31:3, God tells us that He has loved us with an everlasting love. And as beautiful as this confession is, God backs it up with action, because we know that love is not in words alone; its genuineness is revealed through deeds (1 John 3:18).
Jesus Himself made this clear when He spoke about His sacrifice. He told His disciples that it was love that drove Him (John 15:13). This, He did while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). So, before any argument that His love was a response to something we did, it was not. He loved us even before we loved Him (1 John 4:19). This gift of love was the first of all the beautiful gifts God gave us.
Another gift God gave us in Christ is the joy of salvation. He not only saved us, but also gave us the joy that comes with salvation. It was unusual for people to rejoice after being unlawfully beaten (Acts 5:41). It was even more striking for a young man being stoned to death to remain joyful in that moment (Acts 7). What was at work in them was the joy of salvation—the joy of knowing their souls were preserved in God (Psalm 51:12). God saved us and placed within us a joy so deep that its source can only be found in Him.
The birth of Jesus also brought us the gift of peace. If you have ever lost your peace over an issue, even briefly, you understand why peace is such a precious gift. At the birth of Jesus, angels proclaimed peace on earth (Luke 2:14). The sin of man had created separation between God and humanity, and chaos followed, but with the birth of Christ, peace was restored.
Jesus later confirmed this in His final message to His disciples when He spoke about the peace He was leaving with them (John 14:27). Through reconciliation with God, we were reinstated into the peace only He can give—the peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). This is the peace given by the One who slept through a storm.
As a bonus, we received the gift of adoption. God did not simply rescue us from the enemy and leave us to fend for ourselves. He adopted us into His family and made us joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). We received a new name, a new life, and a new identity. The claim Satan had over our lives was revoked, and we became children of a loving Father. By His birth, Jesus took away our enslavement to sin and gave us the gift of sonship (Galatians 4:4–5).
So whenever we remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we should express gratitude for the gifts He brought through His birth—love, joy, peace, and sonship. Our purpose thereafter is to express this love by giving, caring for those around us, and most importantly, sharing the good news with them.
Faith+blog 