This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- 1 John 4:9

God didn’t just say that he loved us. He showed us. He backed up his love with action.

As the apostle John reflects on love and writes to his friends about love, he can’t help himself from veering into the story of Jesus. The only and beloved son of God pulled up a chair at the tired table of humanity. He joined us fully and completely. He ate our food and drank our wine. He slept and wept. He died. And he did all of this because of love.

God could have written “I love you” in a thousand languages and pasted his messages across the sky. He could set an “I love you” message on every ringtone on every phone. He could send each and every one of us “I love you” care packages filled Girl Scout Cookies even when Girl Scout Cookies aren’t in season. But what he did was better.

When we respond to God’s great love for us and serve in our community, we need to be crystal clear about what we are doing and what we are not doing.

We are joining in with God in his practical, hands-on, I’m-present-with-you way of loving the world. We testify with our words and deeds that there’s a God who loves the people that we’re serving. We put a small but significant facet of God’s love on display for all who are willing to see and celebrate.

But none of this makes us saviors. We aren’t the full embodiment of God’s love. We’re the echo, the shadow, the reflection. God shows his love most completely through Jesus. Our acts of service point toward him. We do these small things because Jesus has done the biggest things.

Take some time today to pray that God would use your acts of love to point people toward Jesus.