We are impressed by flashy love. The spray of red roses. The flamboyant kiss as we greet our spouse. Beautiful cards on each and every occasion.
Yet flashy love is sometimes just that, a flash of excitement, and we struggle to find the substance that makes it real. Like, how about taking out the trash, or running to the store at two in the morning for headache pills? What about that sort of love, the one that pays the bills on time, holds the door, and doesn’t show irritation when our towel is on the bathroom floor yet again?
It’s when we pick up the towel, hang it, and don’t really mind that we show our love is more than a flash in the pan. We’ve gone deeper than the flamboyant kiss. We do for our spouse because we feel our love running through everything we do.
That’s how much Jesus loved the world he came to save. Sure, we read the Word, and throughout the early books of the New Testament, we see the flash and bang of Jesus’ flamboyant demonstrations of his passion for humanity. He healed blinded eyes, provided food in time of need, and brought the dead back to life. However, what about the rest of the time? Was Jesus content to send a spray of roses, impress his followers, and be satisfied with that?
John 21:25 tells us otherwise:
“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
Jesus did all the little things that showed his love for the world. They were the things no one wrote down. We have the flash recorded in the Bible, and yes, they are important illustrations for verifying the deity of Jesus, who was God in the flesh. It’s those magnificent feats of Godhood that reveal just who Jesus really was. Yet, they don’t tell the entire story.
Jesus’ better miracles were the ones that took place around him constantly, the individual examples that showed his compassion to his companions, his acquaintances, and the people who needed his touch every day. We’ll never know for certain all the ways Jesus made himself special to those who walked the earth with him. They aren’t recorded. All we have is the record that they did happen. Perhaps Jesus sweetened a cistern of water in the midst of a drought. He healed the broken leg of a small child. A sorrowful heart left his presence with a brighter outlook. A destitute widow found provision through an unexpected means. The bear never attacked. The ship didn’t leak. The storm battered that field, not this one. The soldiers didn’t find the believers even though they gathered in plain sight.
Did Jesus do any of these? Probably, and more. There’s no way to know. Flashy love is fun. Miracles performed to acclaim are uplifting. For every day, we need the love no one sees. That’s the better miracle.
The greater our love, the more little things we will do that no one ever notices.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 8-28-16 in Relationships