November 5
November 5
If someone were to ask you how much God loves you, what would you say?
In the middle of talking online with her grandma, our almost three-year-old granddaughter asked to talk to me. When she saw my face on the phone, she smiled wide and began to babble away. I understood about half of what she said. Eventually I told her I needed to get off the phone, but, before I did, I told her that I loved her. With a big grin she said, “I love you too, Grandpa.” Those few seconds of life were deeply meaningful to both of us. A young little girl and a not-so-young man both hunger for love, and something happens in our hearts when we hear the words I love you.
The hunger to be loved is universal. It unites all human beings, no matter who they are or where they live. This hunger has been wired into our hearts by our Creator. He built us with this hunger, and he pulls us into a loving relationship with him and into loving community with one another. But now our hunger for love also produces fear. Not only do we hunger for love, but we anxiously wonder whether those who say they love us will continue to love us once they get to know us. If we wonder about this in human relationships, how much more do we wonder about this in our relationship with God? How much does God love us? Does his love have limits? Is his love really a faithful, patient, and forever love? Does he ever break his bond of commitment to us? Does God ever regret that he chose to place his love on us? Does his anger with our sin ever get in the way of his love for us?
All of these questions are answered in a few words in the middle of one of Jesus’s final recorded prayers. In John 17 Jesus prays for the unity of his followers. He speaks of his love in a way that should bring eternal rest and peace to our hearts: “. . . I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23). This statement of God’s love for us is almost too glorious to fit into our finite human brains. It is so unlike any other experience of love we have ever had that we cannot fully grasp its beauty or extent. The heavenly Father’s love for us is the same as his love for his Son, the Lord Jesus. The joy he has in the Son, he has in us. The eternal commitment he has to the Son, he has to us. The unbreakable affection he has for the Son, he has for us. We cannot fully understand God’s love for us by simply comparing it to human love. If you want to understand how much God loves you, meditate on his love for his Son. God’s love for you is at no greater risk than his love for his Son, and that is the best of news.