A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. –John 13:34
Growing up, I loved the Looney Tune’s Wile E. Coyote and The Roadrunner cartoon. If you’ve never watched it, you’re missing out on repetitive goodness. The premise of each and every episode is exactly the same: this hungry coyote fervently attempts to catch this quick road runner. The coyote sets up traps, puts up trip wire, and orders elaborate kits . . . all in hopes of finally catching and possessing this speedy bird. At times he is successful, only for the road runner to find a way to slip out of his possession. No matter how many times this happens, the coyote never gives up: he is relentless.
Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines relentless as showing no signs of slackening or yielding in one’s purpose. I can’t help but draw an analogy of the coyote and roadrunner with the Father and us. No, He doesn’t want to kill us, but He does want to fully possess us. He is relentless in His pursuit of us. He makes every attempt to do it. He sends people to speak words to us. He appears in dreams. He speaks through sermons. He speaks through His Word. He speaks directly, all in an attempt to fully possess us with His love. The list goes on and on. No matter how we respond, His pursuit does not stop. He initiates. He loves first. Each and every day there is a pursuit, and if we can fix our eyes on Him daily, we would recognize it. But it doesn’t stop there. The pursuit does not just exist with the Father and us. The Father also has given us His heart.
Covenant community and relationships are formed when we recognize that we are relentlessly pursued by the Father, and we in turn, begin to pursue others. The Father doesn’t sit back waiting and neither should we. We are to be compelled by the Father’s love. If you have experienced it, it should drive us to love others. That means we do not sit back waiting for other’s to love us, but we begin to love on others. That means we ask someone else, ”How are you?” instead of waiting to be asked. It means we go give others hugs, instead of waiting to be hugged. It means we give words of encouragement, instead of waiting for words of encouragement. Pursuing is inviting someone out, instead of waiting to be asked out. When we know we are relentlessly loved by the Father, we take on the role of the coyote and intentionally seek out others.
When the ENTIRE body of Christ begins to pursue each other relentlessly, we ALL experience the fullness of God’s love;
experiencing the love of the Father and the love of His body. How beautiful is that?! How overwhelming must that kind of love feel like? And if that isn’t great enough, we then fulfill the greatest commandment ever given. Love one another as He has loved us.
Today let us fix our eyes on the Father and open our awareness to His relentless pursuit and let us be intentional with pursuing others.