I like to take walks with my dog almost every day. One evening, I passed a house that had so many flowers of all different colors, and it just made me so happy! A woman was outside watering them, so I told her I loved all her beautiful flowers. She responded with a big smile, “Flowers are the best thing ever!”

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As I continued walking, I thought about that. While flowers are definitely one of my favorite things, I don’t think they are the best thing ever. I think the best thing ever... is love. And generations of human history and storytelling seem to agree. People throughout the ages have been willing to do almost anything for love.

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Pondering this, I remembered a Bible verse: 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love.” Isn’t that a wonderful thought? The very thing we humans crave most of all... is God Himself.

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Every loving interaction we have with other people is only an echo of the beautiful love God has for us. Later on in the same passage, John writes, “We love because he [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Out of love, God created us. And even though humanity has rejected our Creator, He never stopped loving us.

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And God’s love is not some ethereal, untouchable idea. God embodied His love for us by becoming human, living among us. Jesus came bodily to earth, and people could physically touch Him. And they could hurt Him—but only because He allowed it. Jesus was willing to be tortured and humiliated on the cross, because that’s what it took for our broken relationship with God to be healed. God’s fullest expression of love for us was the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus, God the Son, gave His own life for us so that we could live with Him forever.

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And love is more powerful than death. After three days in a tomb, Jesus rose from the grave—defeating sin and death forever! Now, everyone who puts their trust in Jesus is reunited with God, the One our hearts crave above all others. He made us for relationship with Him, and our hearts are finally satisfied when we are His once again. • Hannah Howe

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• Do you agree that love is the best thing ever? Why or why not?

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• How can loving human relationships give us glimpses of God’s love for us?

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And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. 1 John 4:16a (NIV)