The Hebrew word for love, awhab or awrag, means "to pant, to long for, to breathe heavily after." Psalm 41:1 says, "As a deer pants for the waters so my soul longs after you." In John 3:16, the idea is that God so loved the world, so breathed heavily after you and me, that he gave his only Son....

God is passionate for you. His breathing is labored. He loves you. There is a book in the Old Testament that is full of heavy breathing. It is titled, "Song of Solomon," or "The Song of Songs." And it deals forthrightly with sexual passion, courtship, and matrimony. King Solomon, the author, wrote 3,000 Proverbs and 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4:29-32). But this song is his best. In verse 1:1 it is called "the song of songs." That is a Hebrewism, a way of saying this song is his greatest hit.…