This morning I spent a little bit of time at Eureka talking about how we are not meant to do life by ourselves. I talked about how we were created by love, in love and for love. This is one of those things that I have known for quiet some time, but as I grow older, I seem to get it more and more and I can very clearly see it’s relevance to our everyday life and living.

We Were Created By Love! In the very first book of the Bible Genesis 1:26-28 we read: ^“26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

This reminds us that we are made in the image of God and given dominion over every living thing. It also explains that God male and female and blessed them with the command to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. This is not something we do by ourselves, but something we do TOGETHER.

Often times, we tend to think of God as some cruel judge in the sky, just waiting to catch us doing something wrong, so He can fling a lightening bolt, but that is not God at all. Our God is a loving and patient Creator, who want the absolute best for His creation. The Bible teaches us that God is LOVE. God is everything we know as good and so much more…

We Were Created In Love! Thomas Merton said: “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with one another. I heard a story about an experiment with rats. The researches put a rat in a cage and gave it a choice between pure water and drug laced water. Most of the rats chose the drug laced water and often continued drinking it until they over dosed and died. The researchers concluded that if given a choice, the majority of people will use drugs.

This was the prevailing opinion, until another researcher came a long and re-designed the experiment. This time rather than having the rat all alone in a cage, the researcher allowed the rats to live together in what he called a “RAT PARK”, where they could socialize, eat good meals together, exercise, mate and live a fulfilling life. Under these conditions, the researcher found that the majority of rats chose the pure water.

It wasn’t the drug that determined if a person would use drugs or not, but rather their emotional state and their environment that would help decide. Social isolation is not good for any of us and a lack of stimulation that comes from always being alone is not natural and can lead to hopelessness and unhealthy coping strategies. The bottom line: We were created for relationship, friendship and connection.

We Were Created For Love! There is more to this life than just me and my life. There is you and your life and them and their life and all of us we created to do this thing called life together. Before we can offer love to anyone else, we must first receive it for ourselves and give it to ourselves, because when we get this right, then we are ready to share love and acceptance with others.

To get church right, then we must come together on a regular basis to do life together in a better way than we ever could a part or separate from the place and people of church. When I was growing up, it was not just the people my own age that blessed me at church, it was people of all ages and from all walks of life.

Love is the beautiful gift of God that keeps on giving to us and through us. I challenge you to get it right by receiving it and then sharing it with everybody, everywhere in every way you can…