Love Written Into the Body

In 2012, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle made a stunning discovery. When they examined the brain tissue of women who had carried sons decades earlier, they found male cells — cells carrying a Y chromosome — still living in the mothers' brains. The phenomenon is called fetal microchimerism. During pregnancy, a small number of the baby's cells cross the placenta and embed themselves in the mother's body — her heart, her lungs, her brain — where they remain for the rest of her life.

A mother does not just carry her child for nine months. She carries part of that child in her very body for the rest of her days. Love, at the most basic biological level, is not merely an emotion. It is an exchange of self.

This is what the Apostle John meant when he wrote, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). The love of the Almighty is not a sentiment He feels from a safe distance. It is a giving of Himself that becomes part of us. When Christ entered this world, He did not observe humanity from heaven's balcony. He crossed every barrier — like those tiny cells crossing the placenta — and made His home within us.

You are not merely loved by God. You carry His presence within you. His love is not an idea. It is alive in you, as close as your own heartbeat.