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
