Agapé love
Mothers day is approaching. The second Sunday of each May is spent by children, both young and old, honoring their mothers and the sacrifices they make each and every day.
The word sacrifice has been playing in my mind recently. The Lord impressed upon me to research sacrificial love. What does sacrificial love truly mean?
During my research I came across the phrase "Agapé Love". This phrase refers to the divine love our heavenly Father has for us.
Agape means wide-open. I've heard it explained like having your hands open, ready to receive all of the gifts, the plans, the blessings. The trick to practicing Agapé love, is to not close your hands. Agapé love means to accept, AND TO GIVE, freely.
Agapé love can feel synonymous with sacrifice. Keeping our hands wide open takes sacrifice. It's so easy to clutch with all of our might onto the things we hold dear. Learning to love with hands open, means to learn to give God every bit of control. It means to accept the blessings we are given and love without fear. Agapé love is more than a feeling. It is an action, it is a driving force.
The best example of Agapé love is Jesus' mother, Mary. In my understanding of her story, she knew exactly what it meant when she said yes to the Lord to birth the son of man. She fully understood the sacrifice her son, our God, would be making for the people of the world. When she looked into her sweet baby boy's eyes as she nursed and cared for him, she knew the torment her son would experience. She knew who her son was. Mary knew the responsibility she had raising the son of God. Above all, Mary knew that baby boy was her son.
I imagine Mary watching the brutality of all the world's sin laid down upon her perfect baby boy. I imagine her momma heart breaking with each whip and taunt. I imagine her screaming out to The Father for mercy. I know she prayed, just like I did, for any other way. I know Mary. I feel her heart shattering.
Jesus is our Lord, but he was also Mary's son. Mary raised that child and loved him completely. She was practicing Agapé love. God gave us an example of the perfect, open-handed love. He showed us what to do when our natural order is flipped on its head.
Mary continued to live. She continued to keep her eyes fixed on the promises of the Lord. She kept her hands and heart open. She sacrificed her brokenness to continue to strive for joy for her son. She laid down her pain and continued to live
She place all her faith and trust in God's plan, no matter how unfair and cruel it seemed. She said yes to a plan that felt wrong. She loved her son, her savior, with every fiber of her soul. She sacrificed her desire to stop living, to give up to the temptation of defeat, she pushed through the longing to die herself and continued to spread the message of hope, and love. She continued to live on earth for her son.
Agapé love is beautiful and painful. Thank you Jesus for giving us such a wonderful example of how to continue to live, through your mother Mary.