Have you heard the one about the elderly woman who heard her friends’ husbands over the years tell them how much they loved them? Oh! How she longed for her husband to do the same. To regale her with the depth and breadth of his enduring love. But…nothing. Finally, as they were sitting out on the porch one morning, she turned to him and said as sweetly as she could, “WHY don’t you ever say you love me??”
He turned wide, rheumy eyes to her and shrugged. “I told you I loved you on our wedding day.”
Now she was the one with wide eyes. “That was sixty-five years ago!”
He patted her hand. “And if it had ever changed, I’d have let you know.”
Now, I’m not advocating that kind of thing in marriage. Please, say you love each other. Regularly. But I confess I’m a bit stymied when we children of the living God seem to need Him to tell us, again, that He loves us. Or, more to the point, to prove to us in one way or another that He does. We look for “signs.” For answers to prayers. For open doors, closed doors, doors left ajar. For any hint from “on high” that He really and truly loves us. And I can’t help wondering…
Why?
Do we think God has changed His mind about loving us? Scripture says that’s impossible. Do we think He was just kidding? That whole offering-His-only-Son-as-a-sacrifice-to-restore-us-to-Him thing seems pretty serious to me. Do we think what we do or think or say will suddenly reveal to Him who we really are and He’ll back away from us like we’re some kind of slug slime? (Listen, I find that every morning on my outdoor carpeting. That’s some kind of disgusting! Just sayin’.) Um, nope. Not gonna happen. He knows everything about us and He STILL sent His Son for us. For me. For you. For the person you are convinced has no possible redeeming qualities.
For every one of us.
I know my thinking tends to be somewhat simplistic, but hey, didn’t Jesus tell us to come to Him as little children? Anyway, God…the one TRUE God…created us to have fellowship with Him. With. Him. He breathed His spirit into us, and we became living souls. But He didn’t make us into little robots that praised and loved Him without thought. He gave us a will of our own and the freedom to use it for good, bad, or indifferent. And even when we waltz down a wrong path where He won’t go with us, when we walk in defiance or rebellion or anger or whatever spurs us away from Him, His love for us? Still there. His Son’s death on the cross? Still for us. And He will, ever and always, welcome us back if we come. You know, the whole prodigal thing. It’s for us, folks. No condemnation. No recriminations. Just Par-TAY! My child has come home! Yes, yes, there are consequences to our actions. Some devastating. But God’s there, too, with us in the pain and hard work of restoration. And His love? You guessed it! Still there. Still endless.
THIS, my friends, is the love He showers on us. The love that we can count on. The love that we as writers are asked to share through our words, our stories, our creations. This is the measureless love we not only get to experience, but we have the honor—no, the responsibility–to show to others in new and powerful ways.
“But hasn’t everything about it already been written?” you ask. “And far better than I ever could?”
Well, let me answer that with another story. You probably know it, about the blind men taken into a room with an elephant, who were then asked to describe the animal? Each man described what he experienced of the elephant—the leg, the tusk, the tail, and so on. But all they shared were glimpses—pieces, if you will—of the impressive whole that was an elephant. Their experiences were limited.
No matter who else has written about God’s love, or how they’ve written about it, we’re all, in one way or another, blind. We know of God what we know of God. But to gain a true picture of our marvelous, amazing, terrifying, jealous, loving, just, righteous, all-powerful, grace-steeped, tender, angry, bold, speaks-in-the-whisper God? That takes everyone one of us, sharing our part. Our experience. And you and I get to do that through the God-breathed gift of words.
Yet more proof that He loves us.
And that will never, ever change.
Not All Opinions Are Valid
Wonderful news not only for the unbeliever but for every Christian who sometimes wonders if God loves them. His awesome love can not be understood n human terms. We are broken in our capacity to love like He does because of what sin did. But the wonderful news is that He sees us through the filter of Christ. That grace humbles me every day of my life and is the story I want others to hear, Blessings, Karen.
Not a day goes by that I don’t stand utterly astounded and eternally grateful that God loves-even me.
Loved this post, Karen. It reminded me of when I really, truly began to grasp the depth and amazing-ness of God’s love for me (and each of His kids). There is joy unspeakable and peace and confidence when we can embrace the truth that God loves us, no matter what.
Thank you for this great reminder this morning!
Wonderful reminder of God’s grace. Can you imagine the chaos if God’s love depended on our actions? I don’t believe He has plan A, B, and C. He knew us from the foundation of the world and planned accordingly.
Even when we don’t “feel” Him, He is with us and He cares. Yes, He loves us. He always will.
Such a beautiful post!
Great post, Karen. Heartfelt and to the point.
I’ve seen things in life that would have led me to doubt God’s love, except for one thing – that He has put together a Creation in which free will is the operative necessity for us to be able to share eternity with Him, and free will can imply some pretty horrible things.
We may have to face the consequences of the actions of another. At first glance that seems unfair, but if you do take seriously the requirement that we choose to be “on God’s team”, it makes a severe kind of sense.
For Him to deliver us from that would make the whole thing a puppet show; believe and you’ll have smooth sailing. That kind of deterministic Creation would ultimately be meaningless, given the object of the exercise.
And so I believe His love grants us stoicism when we would like to cry, compassion when we have been horribly hurt, and the fortitude to face what rises from the abyss.
Heaven is not a ‘reward’ for this; it’s the logical conclusion of the Eternal Citizenship Class in which we have been, kicking and screaming, enrolled.
Reading this post – what a great way to start my morning, Karen!
It tears my heart when I think about the millions of people who don’t know God loves them so much He paid the price himself so they could live this moment and forever with Him. It tears it even more when I look at my friends who are choosing to reject that love. Today might be the exact point in time when someone I know is open to seeing what Jesus did out of love. I pray for the eyes to see when it’s time to share and the wisdom and courage to speak or write what the Spirit gives me to draw back the curtains for them
Thank you, Karen. I needed this today: “sharing our part. Our experience.” Recently I’ve been given an opportunity to share “my part” on an upcoming program. But in stead of staying in rejoice mode, I’ve been suffering with insecurity. I keep waiting for someone to change their mind and drop me. Thanks for reminding me I’m only required to tell the story God has written on my heart—He’s enough—His love is enough.
Blessings ~ Wendy
Karen, you are reminding us that all of life derives its meaning and value, both measurement and being, from God. The way of the cross is love.
Yesterday I posted a writing on my blog about spiritual love, it was word for word from a journal entry written while pondering the mystery of God. Love is everything. There is no love apart from God. He infuses love into us as part of His showering love into His creation. It is a beautiful reality.
Although it’s there, like you reminded us, we lose sight of it, or we don’t know how to access it in our daily reality. That can change as we begin to alter our focus by speaking words of love and affirmation to Father God, the Son and Spirit. Love is active, it continually transforms the inner person. We are able to allow God’s presence to enter into our heart of hearts in a very active way once we get ourselves out of the way and in position to receive it. This process begins a sweet communing… which creates an amazing closeness that is rich and real. It’s what I write about, a lot.
Wonderful! Thanks.
I love this subject, can you tell?!
Amen. Thank You, Karen
Great reminder of our basic motive for writing. The other side of the coin is “How often do I let Jesus know that I love Him?” If His love switch turns off after several days of not hearing me or seeing me act in “loving the least of these,” I am in deep trouble. Thank You Jesus for not gauging Your by mine.
Thanks for the reminder of God’s unfailing love, Karen!
What a great encouragement this morning! *warming up typing fingers* 😉