Love, how many times

Interesting.
So, over the weekend, in doing research for my paper, I was typing into google "How many times is..." And you know how the most common, most recent searches automatically pop up in a little pull down box, so that if, by chance, you happen to be searching for what everybody else is searching for, you can easily click on that, and forget having to type in the rest. Well, if you type in "How many times is...", do you know that three of the top 5 searches are variations of "How many times is love in the Bible?" I guess people want to know. Millions and millions of people. And, of course, now you’re probably thinking, ok, hj, tell me...how many times is it? I can’t really tell you though because it depends on the Bible translation as well as the inclusion of "loved" and "loves," but definitely upwards of 500. (Note: one of the other top searches was "How many times is Grey Goose distilled?" Really? That many people want to know? Well, it’s three times!)

This got me thinking about why people want to know how many times exactly love is in the Bible? Do they want reassurance that God loves them? Do they sigh in disgust when they realize that yes, they should actually love their lame or rude neighbor? Or maybe they’re just giving a presentation and they want to sound smart and rattle off how many times love is in the Bible?

The number of times that love is in the Bible I suppose does show that love is a critical, if not THE critical component of Christianity. Both God’s love for us, and as Christians being called to love each other. Whether it’s 496 or 623 times, I’m not sure really matters. Especially because some of those are actually warnings against loving the wrong things.

1 John 3:16
"We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us..."

We know it not by how many times love pops up in our Google searches, or how much we see, feel, hear, or know love on earth. But rather, we know because He died for us. And I don't really think there's a number big enough for that kind of crazy love.