We all love a good story—especially a love story. Even the hardest hearts are moved by tales of sacrifice and devotion. These stories resonate because they reflect a universal human need: to know we are loved.

But what happens when that need goes unmet? Research on children raised in institutional isolation highlights the devastating effects of a lack of love: anxiety, depression, and stunted intellectual and social development. Love is essential. Some argue it’s an evolutionary survival mechanism, but that explanation falls short of the sacrificial love humanity displays—a love willing to give everything for another.

Advent is a love story rooted in God’s eternal plan. The Bible declares, “God is love,” but the shape and content of that love are often misunderstood. It’s not love for its own sake but a love demonstrated through the Incarnation—God becoming flesh.

This love story predates the world’s foundations. God knew humanity would fail and bear the scars of sin. Yet, in His profound love, He created us in His image and introduced a plan for redemption. In an act of unimaginable grace, God bore the full weight of human sin to bring healing and hope.

“For God so loved the world, He sent His Son”—not just to know us, but so that we might know Him. In Jesus, we hear, see, touch, and experience the love of God. This love surpasses understanding, yet it is made visible and tangible in the birth of Christ.

The Incarnation reveals a love willing to endure rejection, suffering, and death to conquer sin and bring life. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we are reconciled to the Author of love. This divine love empowers us to love others in radical, transformative ways—not self-preserving, but life-giving.

God’s love is most profoundly expressed in the vulnerability of a baby born in a manger. In this tiny, fragile form lies the greatest demonstration of divine love—a love that calls us to serve, to put others first, and to embrace those longing for eternal love.