“he is love” by David Mason

This morning we sat on a long wooden bench. Now this bench is like no other bench in the world, for it was created for something unmistakably unique, and undeniably different.
This bench was created for love.
"It is a bench, in a room...how can that be love, you ask...
well, this bench was made solely for us to sit in, to be in the very presence of love itself...Himself. Everyone around us this morning, were all there for the same reason...love.
This world lacks love. Humanity lacks love. Without compassion and love, man is nothing but a shell of selfishness and decaying flesh...filling himself with pride, vanity, lust, money, fame, power.
The problem is, you see, that we are incapable, in of ourselves, of truly loving each other
We don't really know what True Love is. We often think love is a thing to benefit us...to serve us...to fill up our own hearts. This is not what love is.
True Love is serving someone else...being their hands when they cannot use their own...being their voice when they can't whisper, let alone raise a shout to be heard.... being the shoulder that one leans upon when their legs are too tired to carry them down the path of life any longer.
Love is walking the extra mile with the person you enjoy or appreciate the least; the one who has done you the most wrongs...having in your heart no expectation of praise or return on your investment. Love is doing the same for those that you care for the most.
Love is a crimson stained tree, nailed and lashed together to form a tall cross. Love is the blood that ran freely from His hands, feet, back, and head as they whipped and mocked Him. Love is found in the tears that ran from His eyes in His final hours.... tears of fear, of pain, of loneliness...tears of understanding and faith in His father.... tears of desire to see you and I set free from our bondage at any cost...even His own death.
Love is the physical and mental pain that He suffered, hanging there for hours, while people continually mocked Him...the same people that He was dying for.
Love is found in the look in His eyes as He turned to the thief hanging on the cross next to Him, peering deeper than his sins and into his heart, promising him eternal life...offering him forgiveness.
Love is the desperation in His voice, crying out to Yahweh..."Father, Abba, why have you forsaken Me?!" as He was completely separated from His Father, having upon Him every sin of every man for all time to come.
Love is found in His time spent in death, and in the way that He defeated Satan during this time, conquering hell...and rising again, that His children might be set free.
Love is seen in the open wounds of His fully resurrected body, that He beckoned Thomas to feel. "These wounds are the price I paid for your ransom," He seems to speak to everyone in that room, as He tells Thomas not to doubt, but to believe, for He is risen.
Love is our resurrected Lord sitting on a beach with His few best friends, cooking them breakfast, and teaching them those few last pieces of wisdom before returning to be with His father in heaven...His home.
Love is the gift that He has offered us.
As we gaze towards the hill where He died, and begin to wipe the crimson stains away from the splintered wood that mark where our own personal sin drove the nails through His wrists...there Love is, waiting with outstretched hands for us to fall into His arms.
As His eyes fill with tears, His heart longs only to hold us close to Him...to protect us, to guide us, to comfort us. We step forward; leaning hesitantly into His embrace...receiving the greatest gift that anyone has ever offered...grace and mercy, complete forgiveness, and eternal life with our creator - the lover of our souls, Yeshua.
This long, stiff bench, which was made for love, reminds me of another of mankinds wooden creations in which we find love. One of these, created intentionally for love. The other, crafted by hate, but becoming the greatest catalyst for True Love of all things created by mankind. As I run my fingers along its grains and knots, my heart is encouraged as my mind reflects upon the cross of our Christ.