You are loved. Yes, you. The human soul longs to know that this is true.
From our earliest childhood memories, most of us recall a deep desire for love and acceptance. Our young and impressionable hearts would wander … and wonder … “Does Mom really like my art project?” … “Is Dad really proud of the way that I caught that ball?” To various and sundry degrees, our earthly parents nurtured us – by their actions and by their words – into various and sundry degrees of feeling loved.
When it comes to our self-identity, even if we believe that we had the “best” parents on earth, our parents were unable to instill in us a perfect knowledge of a perfect love. They may have desired deeply to give us a perfect assurance of their acceptance of us, and they may have given their most valiant effort to that end, but they did it imperfectly. That is the nature of all human love. It is always less than perfect. Because we live in a world of sin, and because we inhabit a fallen planet, our best efforts at loving others are never 100%.
If you are a parent, I know that you can relate to what I’m saying. When it comes to how well we’re doing at the task of parenting, there’s never a day that goes by that we don’t wish that we had done at least something a little differently. We may try our best to offer love and acceptance to our kids, but we don’t always succeed. Somehow, life gets in the way of love.
Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “My parents didn’t even try.” If that is your situation, my heart goes out to you. I am so sorry for the pain that you have endured. Sadly, all of us, to one degree or another, have inherited some substantive pain when it comes to the deep-down, gut-wrenching, soul-level hunger to be loved with a perfect love.
And yet, I can still affirm, unequivocally: YOU ARE LOVED.
One of my wife’s favorite verses is Psalm 145:9, where the Bible reminds us of the unchanging character of God. Here it is: “The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.”
All.
Yes, I looked it up. All means all.
When you and I recognize that the love of God, on some core level, touches all of His creatures, it forces us to decouple our blessings from our faithfulness. Said differently, we begin to realize that God simply loves us. He doesn’t love us because we’re good. (We’re not.) He doesn’t love us because we’re successful. He doesn’t love us because we’re spiritual. He doesn’t love us because of our prayers or our religious acts. He doesn’t love us because we deserve it. He just loves us. Period.
And, if you are in Christ – if you are trusting in Jesus Christ by faith – then you have tasted God’s love in the most marvelous of ways. You have been forgiven! You have been freed! You have been adopted forever into the family of our perfect Father! Now we are His sons and daughters. We are the apple of His eye. We are the joy of His heart. We are His Beloved.
In Christ, we are loved. God loved us at great cost to Himself. In fact, it cost Him everything. He gave us His Son. After declaring us His friends, Christ laid down His life for us. You and I are loved extravagantly. In Him, we really are loved with a perfect love.
Human love can be wonderful, and we all need it desperately, but the perfect love of God for us is far greater. Far, far greater.
I see it in the rising sun.
I see it in the moonlit sky.
I see it in the hope of spring.
I see it in the birds that fly.
I see it in the air I breathe.
I see it in the clouds and rain.
I see it in the whale and lamb.
I see it in the gospel plain.
I see it in the stranger’s smile.
I see it in a mother’s womb.
I see it in our daily bread.
I see it in an empty tomb.
Valentine’s Day is here. My prayer for you is that, wherever you look today, you will see the love of family and friends – and the love of God for YOU! Yes, you.
“The greatest of these is love.”
Pastor Charles
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