"Always."

So, I was sitting in my room, trying to figure out what to talk about for a senior-led devo at my church. I decided to just go with something that I knew really well. Which is how I came to the conclusion that I could use Harry Potter.

Not the whole series, of course. Just one certain character. Severus Snape.

Allow me to set the stage (sorry, I’m an actress). Snape was basically Voldemort’s right-hand man. He was considered his most faithful servant, considering his role as a double agent. He pretended to be on the good side when actually he wasn’t.... or so it seemed, until the end of the last book, where we find out that he’s actually a good guy pretending to be a bad guy... who was pretending to be a good guy. Confusing, right?

Well, in the final book, he gives Harry some of his memories right before he dies. Harry, desperate for anything he can use to end the battle going on, takes them to Dumbledore’s study to see them. The memories reveal a shocking detail: Snape was on the good side the entire time. Everything he did was because of one person.

Lily Potter.

Yes, it turns out that he was in love with Harry’s mother ever since they first met when they were children. She became his best friend, but she never loved him back. Lily ended up marrying James Potter. Snape, however, never got over her. And so, when Voldemort tries to kill Harry as a baby and Lily sacrifices herself, Snape is absolutely crushed. He had begged Dumbledore to protect her, but none of them could do anything about it. Dumbledore then asks Snape to help him protect Harry from further threats. Despite his disgust for the boy, Snape agrees because Lily died to save her son. It’s what she would have wanted.

So, to get to the point I’m trying to make. Like I mentioned in my last post, at camp we talked a lot about how much God loves us. We can never fully understand how much. But it’s not a one-way street. Yes, God loves us, he chases after us, he wants us. But we should want him, too.

Just like Snape. Everything he did after Lily’s death was because of her death. He loved her so much that he didn’t want her sacrifice to be in vain. He protected the boy who looked so much like a person he had hated, all because of love. He risked his life, risked being hated by practically everyone around him. All because of love.

And that’s how we should be. We should love God so much that we want to do everything for him. Everything we do should be because Jesus died for us. We should love him so much that we don’t want his death to go to waste. Like it says in 2 Corinthians 5:13-15, “If we are ‘out of our mind’, as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are in our right mind, and therefore all died. And he died for us all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Obviously, if you’ve read Harry Potter (or seen the movies), there are some things that Snape does that I don’t agree with. There’s one thing that sticks out to me that goes along with this. When he agrees to protect Harry, he tells Dumbledore that no one can know about his part in the plan. I think we should be the exact opposite. Matthew 5:16 tells us, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” We shouldn’t hide our love and devotion for God. He tells us that we are the light of the world. And what does light do? Shine!

In 1 Corinthians 13, it talks about what love is, like “Love is patient, love is kind... it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” The last verse of chapter 13 states, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” In my Bible, there are notes at the bottom of each page, like devotional thoughts. Here’s a little bit of what it says about that last verse:

“Paul wrote that love endures forever... Love is the greatest of all human qualities and is an attribute of God himself. Love involves unselfish service to others. Faith is the foundation and content of God’s message; hope is the attitude and focus; love is action. When faith and hope are in line, you are free to love completely because you understand how God loves.”

I think Snape is a perfect example of what love should look like. He performed unselfish service to others because he loved Lily. He had faith in her sacrifice because he loved her. He had hope because he loved her. He did everything because he loved.

There’s a scene that was perfectly written and fantastically done in the movie where Harry is watching a memory of Snape and Dumbledore talking. Dumbledore tells Snape that Harry has to die in order for Voldemort to be defeated. Snape is understandably frustrated; I mean, come on, he was told by Dumbledore to protect this boy! I love the line where he says, “You’ve been raising him like a pig for slaughter!” Dumbledore’s response is, “Don’t tell me now that you’ve grown to care for the boy.” Snape just looks at him in disbelief, and performs his Patronus, which, if you don’t know, is a spell unique to each individual person and takes the shape of an animal. Snape’s is a doe; just like Lily’s. Snape basically told Dumbledore, “No. I did everything for her.” Dumbledore then asks, “After all this time?” And then Snape utters one word.

“Always.”

That’s how we should be. People should question our devotion to God. We should let our lights shine, be so in love with God that people know exactly who we follow and why. 

So, my point here is, yes, God loves us even more than we could ever understand, but we need to love him, too. Let everything you do be for him, so that when someone asks you, “You’re still following that ‘God’ of yours?”, you can proudly respond: “Always.”