I want to tell you a love story tonight.  It’s the greatest love story that ever occurred and I want you to know it.  No other love story—and there have been thousands of them lived and written about and portrayed in movies—comes close.

It’s greater than the love story of Adam and Eve, Romeo & Juliet, Superman and Lois Lane, Beauty and the Beast, Popeye & Olive Oil, Hans Solo & Princess Leia, even better than my favorite story of Jack & Dawn. 

The passage I read to you tells a small portion of the greatest ever love story.  It began a long time ago—not decades or centuries or even millenniums—but so long ago that we use numbers so big they are meaningless to tell us how long ago it was.  This love story began before mankind existed, before the earth existed, before the universe existed.  You can say it happened an infinite number of years ago, but that wouldn’t be accurate, for years didn’t exist when this story began. 

At that time, before our universe existed, there was a God—the one and only and same God that exists today.  He wanted to create a people to love and who would love Him in a beautiful relationship.  And so He created a beautiful universe full of galaxies and stars and planets and in a perfect garden called Eden on a planet we now call the Earth, He created a man and a woman.  He loved them and cared for them and even walked with them in the evening showing them the wonders of the planet He created for them.  They chose to love their God in return and to walk with Him.  And they were content, knowing nothing except the pleasures of life and the love of their Creator.  For some time—we don’t know how long—the love on both sides was perfect. 

But they were tempted to do wrong and to rebel against their loving God—and they did—bringing a series of consequences that marred the perfection of their world.  But still God loved them.

Life grew hard.  A now imperfect world made hard work imperative and sometimes that hard work wasn’t enough, for it seemed as if the whole Earth was in rebellion against God.  Storms and floods and earthquakes and fires and droughts destroyed much of the results of their hard work.  But still God loved them.

Their children, for they had grown well beyond a man and a woman and were now a race of men and women, made it worse, instituting hatred and murder and seemed to constantly invent new says of rebelling against God.  But still God loved them.

Tribes of these children gathered and warred against other tribes made up of their cousins and killed millions on both sides.  But still God loved them.

God sent prophets to proclaim His love and to give them guidance on how to live, but they ignored the prophets of God and sometimes even killed them.  But still God loved them.

God sent laws to give them guidance on how best to live and thrive in a broken world, but they broke the commands and laws as soon as they were given.  But still God loved them.

God sent His Spirit to call them back to Him, and at times, they turned to God and were blessed.  But inevitably, they turned away from God and grew worse than before.  But still God loved them.

God wrote His love story down in a book which He widely distributed, but words were taken out of context and used to justify rebellion and war and hatred and evil and it was used even against God Himself.  But still God loved them.

Finally, in the event we’re here to celebrate tonight, the birth of Jesus, God came down Himself, for God loved them.  He came not as an overpowering and angry giant with swords and lightning indicating His power—for then He would only be feared and not loved.  He came not with an all-powerful army—for too many armies had come and destroyed life. He came not just with words—for words had been given and then broken from the dawn of time. He came not with anger—for anger brings retaliation and more anger.  Instead, He humbled Himself and came not as a God but as a baby, because He loved us.

Within a few days, however, one of our wicked kings tried to kill Him.  But still He loved us.

This God was forced to flee and live as one of millions of refugees that have covered the Earth from the beginning of mankind.  But still He loved us.

When He grew to be a man—a perfect man of love, the only perfect man of love—lies were told about Him and He was called a heretic and demon possessed.  But still He loved us.

When His influence grew and it seemed as if people were beginning to understand and love Him, enemies conspired together to arrest Him.  But still He loved us.

He was laughed at, spit upon, beaten, and whipped.  But still He loved us.

He was ultimately stripped naked and crucified on a Cross with criminals.  But still He loved us.

Because He was and is God, He rose on the third day, for human beings have no power over God or over death.  And He arose not with anger at how we treated Him, but with compassion and forgiveness and kindness.  For still He loves us.

And 2000 years later, even as faith wanes, war rages, hatred and racism rule the hearts of people, and rebellion against God and His ways is rampant, God has not given up.  For still He loves us.

Even today, even tonight, when Bethlehem resembles a ghost town because all of the Christmas celebrations are shut down because of the Israel/Hamas war, God has not given up.  For still He loves us.  

He still loves us.  He still loves us.  And what He wants from us is what He originally created us for, to love Him in return and live within a loving relationship with us.  How do we do that?

It begins with faith.  You can’t love a being unless you believe that He exists.  So as part of this greatest ever love story, I challenge you to believe that God is real, that Jesus is His Son, that He came from heaven to Earth on that first Christmas, that He died on the Cross, and that He still lives today as He has done from before the creation of our Universe.

It continues with obedience, for words are easy to come by, but obedience is the fruit of real words honestly spoken.  “I love you and I believe in you” are the right words.  Obedience is the fruit of those words.  Because I believe in you, I will follow you and obey you.  

Faith and obedience—that’s following Jesus.  That’s love for God.  He loves us and even while we were in rebellion against Him, He loved us.  And Jesus came.  And Jesus died.  And Jesus rose.  And Jesus is alive.

God loves us.  I can give you no greater words tonight.