Agape

Earlier... a few seconds ago actually (I just got really excited and had to write this!)... I was on Pinterest looking at Christian tattoos (because that is actually what I do in my spare time). After endless streams of Greek letters, crosses, ichthus, I came across one in particular.

Now this wasn't a tattoo I would get for myself, it wasn't creative or stunning or super meaningful. It was simply the word "Agape". This was nothing different from any of the other generically Christian groups of letters, but it was the description that really caught my eye.

Over my many years of Christian education, church, and family life, I have always heard agape love defined as "unconditional". Which, granted, is a pretty amazing thing. Like I talked about in my last post, no matter how much I screw up and "crack my clay jar" God still wants me. At the end of Romans 5 Paul talks about God's grace increasing whenever we sin, but goes on at the beginning of chapter 6 to remind us that this does not mean that we should keep sinning to allow God's grace to become greater, but that we are dead to sin.

I've always sort of had this idea in my head about God after I sin that looks something like a parent who is disappointed in their child for eating a cupcake even though they were told not to. See this video for an example. For some reason, in my mind, I always see the parent as though they really thought the kid would obey.

But this lady used these words, "Love that is without expectations..." I love that. 

In my parent analogy this becomes the parent who realizes their child is 3 years old and knew that they would probably eat the cupcake, even though they were told not to. Perhaps the parent was hoping the child would listen, but (lets be honest) what 3-year-old (or 30-year-old) is really going to be able to leave those cupcakes alone every time?

Although we are dead to sin, and alive in Christ, we are still in the flesh, and sometimes we screw up. It's not only that if I mess up He's still going to love me, but He doesn't expect me to always do the right thing, He doesn't expect me to always realize my mistakes, He doesn't expect me to make good decisions. In fact He knows I'm going to "crack my clay". And He loves me anyway.

And I think that's amazing.