Martha Olawale

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

I was reading about “The Coat of Many Colors” recently, and it was fascinating to see that while the coat played a massive part in it, there was more to that love story. The story is about Joseph and his father’s love for him before and after the coat. Genesis 37:3 says, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons because he had been born to him in his old age.” Joseph was loved from the day he was born and loved even when Jacob thought he was dead. When his other sons and daughter tried to console him in verse 35, he told them he’d mourn his son’s death until he died.

I’ve read these verses many times before, and like many people, I place so much more value on the coat than what the story teaches about love. Love is expressive, no doubt, but Love does not start or end with things we can see or touch. The coat's value is not in its beauty because it does not define love alone; it’s the heart behind the coat that has the value. While it expresses Jacob’s love for Joseph, his love for him is not defined by it.

To walk in love, we must know what, or in this case, Who love is. John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.” We can’t define love because it’s impossible to define God; God defines us because God is love.

Joseph’s coat of many colors symbolized his father’s love for his son, but the coat was destructible. However, just because Joseph was stripped of his coat did not diminish Jacob’s love for him. His son’s feared death broke him, not the bloody fabric returned by his other sons.

Until we stop living a lie that God can grow out of love for us, we will not fully grasp the depth of Christ’s love for us. He is persistent and constant in His love, and His death on the cross proves it. While God enjoys lavishing His children with goodness, sound health and mind, and riches, they are not your value. Like Jacob’s love for Joseph, God’s love is indestructible and abounds beyond what we can see.

The devil is a master of deception and often deceives God’s children by attaching the value God places on us to things. This sometimes makes us put so much value on God’s expression of love for us that we forget that even if we lose everything He blesses us with, His love remains. The material and social things I enjoy are God’s gifts, but I live aware that those things express His love for me but do not define it; His heart defines it.