Indescribable

AM Psalm [120], 121, 122, 123 • PM Psalm 124, 125, 126, [127]
Prov. 4:1-27 • 1 John 4:7-21 • John 11:30-44

Have you ever experienced something so utterly amazing that you could not find the words to describe it? Perhaps you have taken a photo of something that simply took your breath away, but as you shared it with others you found yourself saying “this just doesn’t do it justice—you had to be there.”

The reading from 1 John makes me think of these moments. John has experienced God’s love, so profoundly and completely, that he wants his readers to know what he knows. The reading seems repetitive, but I think the repetition is John struggling to describe that which is indescribable. Why is this love hard to describe? After all, we experience love in different ways through our lives.

Scholars share with us that there are different types of love, and these are differentiated by different words in Greek.

• Eros – romantic love

• Storge – family love

• Philia – brotherly love

• Agape – God’s divine love

I think John is trying to describe Agape. He is urging us to rest in knowing we are loved. He is telling us to live more fully knowing that we are loved. He is telling us not only to love our brothers and sisters, but to love the way we are loved by God.

This love might be indescribable, but we are capable of this kind of love. John assures us we are, in verse 19; “We love because he first loved us.”

Written by Susie Norys

Wife, mom, and early childhood advocate. Currently reading The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community by Stephanie Spellers.