1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Psalm 13:5
Trust in God's Unfailing LOVE
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
Matthew 26:36-46
Garden of Gethsemane Prayer
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in God's Understanding
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
Jesus teaches us much about love...He shows us about being vulnerable and trusting in love...And one night in the Garden of Gethsemane He seemed human and vulnerable...
I think sometimes love may be stopped or at least slowed down and paused by one's flaws and weaknesses...But when one thinks about it, it is not our flaws and our weaknesses that slows down love, it is our not wanting to be vulnerable...It may evolve out of a matter of trust...Who wants to admit they have some weaknesses to the one they love...Can I trust them, when they know my darkest secrets?...It just seems easier not to talk about these things and be less open...But being less open to the one you love may be a safe place, but the heart becomes more calloused and hardened in that safe and least vulnerable of places...To love someone you must open up about yourself...And when one opens up about themselves, and truly loves, it makes one vulnerable, very vulnerable...To tell everything about yourself, which includes telling the one you love about all your weaknesses and flaws -it makes you very open and susceptible to getting hurt...When one opens their heart up to another and tells them about themselves they trust that someone they are opening up to...C. S. Lewis said this about love, “To love at all is to be vulnerable...Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken...If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal...Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements...Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness...But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change...It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...To love is to be vulnerable.”...
So since God is LOVE...God is vulnerable in the sense of LOVE, if you believe the words of C. S. Lewis...I might say, He wants all of us to go to heaven and be with Him, because He wants all His children with Him...Just as the good father and mother want their children to be in heaven with our Father...
When we showing this trust and this vulnerability for the love of another it can lead to the breaking of your heart...And only love can break your heart...Trusting God in everything one does is difficult, very difficult...As our naivete leaves us, it seems we are more on our own, with much of God to think about and to trust...It seems vulnerability is not something we always want...And as our years wear on and our dreams get hit with the realities of life, trusting Him becomes harder, so why stay vulnerable...Yet, it is in these hardest times of our lives that God wants us to trust Him...It is when our soul is at the point of being completely overwhelmed, that we feel naked and alone...It seems that when we feel completely alone, at some crossroad, our pleasures have faded, and that it is hardest to trust Him...Yet that is the times when He must be nearest...Because a Father does not leave His Son in His darkest hour...We think we are alone in the garden of Gethsemane, but He is there -even though we have prayed multiple times, saying the same thing...Life's pain and its challenges with our vulnerabilities and our lesser ability of trust seems to seize us -and we feel alone in certain hours...Life's dreams, desires, and hopes struggle to stay with us...But He is there and He is near...And it is maybe that we grow in our faith much more during these Garden of Gethsemane moments, than any other times in our lives...Maybe then in those garden moments, when we are at our most vulnerable and looking for something to trust and to hold on to, do we realize there is only One Thing to hold on to and that is Him...