Loved

See how very much our Father loves us,

 for he calls us his children,

 and that is what we are!

1 John 3:1 (NLT)

The very foundation of all of our service and all of our life is our knowledge of the love of God.  Everything we do springs from this place.  As we gain a deeper understanding and experience of His love, the more effective we will be in every area of our lives.

In the following illustration from Self-Esteem: By God’s Design, Dr. Larry Day asks us to imagine a parent’s love toward their sleeping infant as a fresh reminder of God’s love for us. 

Imagine with me for a moment one of those times in the evening when you tiptoe into your young child’s room to see if they are okay and asleep.  As you stand over your son’s or daughter’s crib and watch them quietly sleeping, you notice how their face looks so calm, peaceful, and angelic.  They look so sweet, innocent, and lovable.  As you gaze down upon that little bundle of humanity, no doubt you begin to experience an amazing assortment of feelings:  love, warmth, pride, awe, tenderness, caring, and concern.

In those few moments of quietness, you don’t see them as the “monster” that did all those things that drive you crazy.  The yelling, crying, fighting, and misbehaving that took place throughout the day fade into the background.  All hassles are set aside as you look at this sleeping form and see a little person.  You feel a deep warm love for them simply because they are there.

Before leaving the room, you feel the strongest urge to pick them up, hold them in your arms, and kiss them softly on the cheek.  But you don’t.  Why not?  Because you don’t want to wake them up and spoil the moment.  You know that as soon as they open their eyes and mouth you will have to deal with their behavior (Doing) and you will lose the enjoyment of their Being.  So you lean over, gently kiss them on the cheek, and quietly leave the room.

I know it is hard for some of you to feel that God really loves you when you have failed and made such a mess of things.  We all think our mistakes, failures, sins, and shortcomings stand as witnesses against us that we don’t deserve to be loved.  We believe God must be fed-up with our bad attitudes and stupid choices, and that that He wants nothing to do with us until we straighten out.

During times like these we need to look at the face of a sleeping child.  Watching them in their simplest and purest human form, can remind us that this is how God sees us.  He came into our bedroom last night, looked down upon us while we were sleeping, and saw us as His child, created in His image, and He deeply loved us. He saw us in our truest humanity – formed from dust, finite and fallen, but bearing His image in our very being – and He loved us for WHO WE ARE and not for what we have or have not done.*

As I meditate upon this illustration I have a sense of God's presence and an confirmation of the truth of his love for me. The message is clear.  I am deeply loved no matter what I do.  Even in the face of all my failings and shortcomings, I am loved and valued just as I am. I don’t have to do anything to be loved.  You and I are valuable not because of what we do, but just because we are the objects of his love.

When we truly assimilate the fact that we are deeply loved by God, that we are completely accepted and forgiven and are recipients of all of his grace and mercy we will be better able to give that same sense of love and acceptance to others.  We will be better able to love others when we have received the depth of God's love into our hearts.

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19 (NIV)

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

  may have power, together with all the saints,

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Eph 3:17-19 (NIV)

*Day, Larry G., Ph.D, Self-Esteem: By God's Design. Pg. 35,36