Can you map out a heart?

During a recent walk with a friend, we discussed science and faith and how over the years have wielded them like weapons against each other. But it's like comparing apples to oranges. They're simply different. Science is diligently at work trying to make sense of that which can be measured, codified, and tested. Faith wrestles with everything else that (so far) cannot be prodded and probed by lab technicians.

There is much mystery that continues to cloak our existence.

And I think that’s great.

Sure, you can share the science behind why stars twinkle and what makes the sky turn various colors at sunrise and sunset. You can explain how an acorn turns from a tiny seed to a mighty oak. You can categorize the various constellations and even use them to guide your way across a starlit sea. And you can use mathematics to analyze a song.

But what person who possesses a soul can stand unfazed by the beauty of what they can observe or the music that they hear?

Where can you find the wellspring of pure joy?

I mean, it would be a real downer if you could somehow quantify love.

What is love? What does it mean to be in love? What does it mean to be moved by love?

And I’m not just talking about romantic love (although that has its share of delights). How is it possible to ignore your own needs, interests, and sometimes even safety, because of love?

Love is the most powerful word in our language. People seek heaven and earth for a taste of it. To experience it. To somehow attain it.

But what is love? What does it look like?

There are so many things we can understand, so many things we can control.

But we cannot control love.

What we can do is yield to love. To let love have its way with us. To deny ourselves and to live for others.

That’s the sum total of the life of Jesus. He came to show us the way to God. He was killed to take away our sin and rose again to make reconciliation with God possible. He ascended to heaven to lead His followers in beginning the process of growing His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

A Kingdom of Love.

For you see, love wins.

When someone mistreats you and you forgive them, love wins.

When you stand up for the rights of another, love wins.

When you give to another who cannot repay you, love wins.

When you seek after God, love wins.

When you live with the faith of a child, love wins.

This Christmas season; remember that the baby in the manger represents God’s love for humanity.

Emmanuel, God with us.

1 John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.
(NLT)