This one goes out to my girl, Ariana Grande.
If you haven't heard the song, "thank you, next" then you're probably living under a rock.
Sorry, that was mean. It's okay if you haven't heard it yet. But go ahead and give it a listen because it's an absolute BOP.
And to add to Ari's beautiful voice and the catchy melody, this song promotes self love and growth from past relationships and experiences. Instead of being bitter about things that went astray in the past, she reflects on how it has help her learn and grow. It's great and I love it.
One of the most iconic lyrics of the song are:
"One taught me love. One taught me patience. And one taught me pain."
I remember one time, someone told me that the best love songs are the ones where you can replace the subject with God. Now this isn't really a love song, but I thought about times in the Bible where God taught love, patience, and pain.
Let's start with love.
First off, God's love is unconditional. Just as parents' love for their children is unconditional, so is God's love because we are all His children, all created in His image. No matter who we are, God shows love to us always and in various ways.
People always gave Jesus a hard time because "the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" (Luke 7:34) Even though He was being judged, Jesus never thought twice about hanging around people with bad reputations, showing this amazingly unconditional and universal love. He accepted all people with an honest love and this is the same love that He embraces us with. And this is the love that we should show to others. He commands us, "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
And we all know John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
There is no greater love and sacrifice than this. And like I said before, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He takes our sins and burdens and transforms them into the most beautiful and selfless love.
For patience, my mind went straight to the parable of the Prodigal Son.
So to recap on this story, there were two sons and the younger one asked their father for his share of his will early. The son then set off and went to the extremes, ultimately spending all of the money and thus, living in poverty. He realized that he messed up pretty badly and decided to return home, where his father took him back.
One thing that stood out to me was that even though the son had sinned, on his way back "while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him" (Luke 15:20).
His father was waiting for him. He patiently waited and embraced his son with open arms, despite taking advantage of his father's wealth before. This reflects God's patience towards us. We might be the absolute worst disciple and it might take us a really long time to realize that, but God will always be open to us. He's actually waiting for our return, like the father in this parable.
We can see this patience through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A good friend of mine once asked me what the purpose of Reconciliation was. He didn't understand why simply praying about your sins wasn't enough. But the answer can be seen in the Prodigal Son. The son was in the darkness until he got the courage to return to his father. Like the son, we will be tainted by sin until we actually give them up and confess them.
By going through Reconciliation, God sees that you are making an effort to mend your relationship with Him, and he patiently waits for you to do this. So "take courage; get up, He is calling you" (Mark 10:49).
And now for pain.
Jesus doesn't really cry much. But one of the few times that he did was in the garden before his crucifixion. We learn this in the letter to the Hebrews where "in the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death" (Hebrews 5:7).
He knew the pain that he was about to experience. Who wouldn't cry about that? But despite knowing the agony that he was going to endure, he still went through with it.
Jesus's pain is full of love.
This is the greatest pain. The greatest love. The greatest sacrifice.
This sacrifice embodies everything stated before. God loves us so much that he was willing to send down his own Son to die for our salvation. God knows that we are going to make mistakes, but He still gives us the free will to do as we wish. He waits patiently for us to return to Him and He will forgive. And this forgiveness is possible because of the ultimate sacrifice of the years of judgement and finally dying on the cross.
So thank you, Ari, for giving us a lovely tune and lesson on growth. But thank you, God, for your reckless love.
Opmerkingen