Friday, October 16, 2015

Just How Much Does God Love Me?

LOTS. I often ask my wife, “How much do you love me?” She always says, “Lots!” And if she can sense I’m being especially cheeky or vulnerable she says, “Lots and lots…” She doesn’t want to make it more than jest because it’s plain that she loves me loads. How can she love me any more than she does?
When we seriously ask God how much he loves us, we need to open our Bibles. In the Old Book there’s verse after verse alluding to God’s loving wisdom; how he designed us from before the time we entered our mother’s womb (Psalm 139); that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for each of us (Romans 5:8).
God wanted us before we were born. Christ died for us that we might live.
Can we even begin to imagine how special to God that we each are; how uniquely designed and formed and blessed of life?
We will never quite comprehend just how special we are to God. But God will reveal that to us in Glory. We may think we’re not that special if another seven billion plus souls are equally special. According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) one-hundred-seven (107) billion people have ever lived. That was the 2011 figure, by the way. That means over one-hundred billion are already dead. All those people have gone into God’s care, and many of them are in heaven.
God loved every single one. He oversaw each of them as they were created. He oversaw their lives in every detail. He knew how each would live. He knew beforehand what choices they’d make; for him or against him. And yet he still loved each and every one. He loved each one that much that he gave them their will.
He loves you no less than his own Son, Jesus Christ, of Nazareth. And Jesus loved you that much he went to the cross for you. You’re not common. You’re singular. You will meet God one day, all on your own. It’s just us and God when we depart this life. Of course, it won’t remain that way; we imagine that we’ll reacquaint with many we know and love who’ve departed.
Recording artist, Nathan Tasker, says in his music, “God cannot love you more, and will not love you less.” God’s love is the fullest possible expression of unconditional love; and, especially as we consider how sinful we are, God’s love is crazy. It makes no sense to us, except if we’re a parent — then we have some idea of the craziness of love that becomes unconditional.
God’s love: a crazy mystery. Crazy: how much we’re loved. Mystery: why we’re loved. Jesus explains both.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.

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