This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1John 3:16)
If my family go on a trip in the car of any decent length (maybe more than an hour each way) it is customary for me to create a musical playlist to entertain us and to minimise the moans and squabbles coming from the back seat. I carefully select an amazingly eclectic group of songs to please the varying tastes and ages of the people trapped in the vehicle together.
This means we can go from James Taylor to Taylor Swift and from Bruno Mars to M.A.R.S. (Pump up the Jam – classic!). As you can see, we really know how to party!
A playlist is a simple thing to create, it takes two or three minutes to drag and drop a few tracks together and then shove it on a memory stick. Well worth the effort if it keeps the travelling tykes tranquil!
Before playlists there were mix-tapes. Very similar to a playlist and yet so, so different.
A labour of love
Where a playlist takes minutes to create, a mix-tape would take a couple of hours at least.
This is because you had to record each track as they played. So a 90 minute tape (45 minutes on each side) had to at least take 90 minutes to create, and that’s not taking into account any time for you to find the next tape or record you are copying and getting it cued up in the right place.
A mix-tape was a labour of love, a serious time investment.
So if you were ever given a mix-tape it was no small gesture. This was a BIG deal.
You knew that someone cared enough about you to spend hours selecting, cueing and copying the tracks for you. In fact if someone other than a family member presented you with a mix-tape it was basically a declaration of love! It was a great way to show your affection for someone, to let them know you liked them.
Fancy that person? Make them a mix-tape, they’ll know what it means.
I only ever got given one mix-tape from a girl, I married her a few years later.
What God did for you
Have you ever had someone do something amazing for you? If you have, you know it means you are loved.
Well as we approach Easter we are reminded of something absolutely mind-blowing. God loves us.
How do we know? Because he showed us. He let us know beyond doubt that he loves us deeply by sending his son to die on a cross, so we could have eternal life.
It's one thing to lay down some tracks on a mix-tape for someone, it's something completely different to lay down your life. That really is love!
Happy Easter