My Christmas Message. "If I went to jail, promise you would pay my bail."

I have without realising that I'm doing so started to enjoy the current crop of new love songs that are popping up on the radio at the moment.

In the title of this post is a line from one such song released earlier this year. It's lines like this that are catching my attention. Instead of all the hearts and roses of songs gone by, this new collective is bringing love into a more relevant context.

They talk about everyday issues that the vast majority of society either faces or knows someone that has faced or is facing. They talk about struggles, life's problems and that at the heart of love its not a feeling but a choice.

One song out at the moment asks the question, "if we got locked up today would you still love me, if I lost everything including my strength would you still love me."

As I was listening to this track and thinking about it it made me ask, what is it that we love about another person? Is our love for someone conditional? If so on what? When we talk about love do we automatically think of romantic love?

Whatever our beliefs may be, at this time of year in the western world we all take advantage of a Christian celebration. Christmas. We may not celebrate it as a religious event, and I am well aware that the time of year that has been used has nothing to do with when Jesus was born, but to hijack a pagan celebration and bring a little light to the darkest time of the year. I am also aware that a lot of people don't celebrate at all and find it a difficult time of year.

If we put religion to the side, and just thing about the historic figure of Jesus all he was about was love. Not a love that took from others for what he could get out of it, but a love that considered everyday issues, poverty, injustice, inequality, and prejudice in a culture and society that found slavery a completely acceptable situation.

So what does this have to do with love songs and romance? Not all love songs are about romance and I would suggest that most people love more people in their lives in a non romantic way than in a romantic one.

The song lyric asks a number of things about a persons love. "If I went to jail, promise you would pay my bail." In other words, if I wasn't perfect and didn't do the right thing, would you still love me enough to pay a price, do something that costs you, and can I trust you to show this through an act that will put me first?

Jesus said; "No greater love can a man show than to lay down his life for his brother."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.