Google or read in your Bible Colossians 3:12- 15
You can’t give what you don’t have. Notice how, before all these
things we should do, “we” were defined. As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly
loved…. This is how we should see ourselves. Most of us; Christians know in our heads that God loves us, and that was why He sent His son Jesus to die for
our sins, but we don't know in our hearts what this means. What do I mean
when I say God loves you? This is the creator of love we are talking about.
From the broken humans around us, we see shards of love and we enjoy it, we
want it. Even in its imperfect state, love is beautiful enough
that most of us spend our lives trying to get it. If the love from mere humans could
be so inviting, how much more the love from God? Most of my life, I saw God as
this angry, scary ruler who I had to spend most of my life trying to please and not offend. I did not see him as a lover, who wants me to know at least a
little of how much He loves and cares for me. The closest (although imperfect)
depiction that we have of God’s love for us is true love
between a man and a woman. When a man loves a woman immensely, I assume that he
is doing everything to get her attention, to woo her heart, to let her know how
much he cares for her, to get into a relationship with her. The Bible says that
the Church (that’s us) is the bride of Christ. In the love relationship we see
between a groom and his bride, the groom (hopefully) is not an angry, scary ruler
who the bride has to spend most of her life pleasing and trying not to offend.
That’s ridiculous! So why do we think that about God?
In the Bible, God goes to great lengths to tell us over and
over again (so it is not mistaken) that He loves us. I mean, I don’t care how much
a man loves a woman, he does not know the number of hairs on her head, but God
knows that about you! Sometimes, when I consider how many people are in this world,
I wonder if God notices me. This detail shows me that He does not
just stop at noticing me, He knows me, all of me including my ugliness and He loves me! Most of the love celebrated on tv is
between flawless couples, the lady is just the right size, has just the right smile,
hair always lies perfectly, not a single strand out of line, even when she just
woke up! When I see this, I am discouraged, because I am never that perfect. But another thing about God’s
love for me and you is that it is not afraid to get messy, matter of fact, if
God claims to love us, this love relationship is never “picture-perfect”,
because we are always messy. In Romans 5: 6, we find out that God’s love came just at the right time. I have
noticed that it is in those times when I have really blown it that the love I
receive from people is amazing to me; those are the "right" times: times when I don’t
“deserve” it. At other times, when I’m doing everything well, it is easy for me
understand why people would love me, I mean, I’m saying all the right things,
doing all the right things… I see why they would love me. God’s love came to us
at a time when we would see absolutely NO reason to receive love. It’s the kind
of love that has nothing to do with you, with the way you look, the way you
perform… a singer sings “loving you is easy cos you’re beautiful…” well, not
this kind of love. In verses 5-8, God loved us while we were still sinners,
while we were still powerless, He demonstrated His love – Christ died for us.
Another thing about this perfect love (unlike the imperfect
love we see all around) is that it never ends, it never leaves. In Romans 8, we
are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Once you accept Jesus into your life, you are accepting the love that God
demonstrated when He sent Him to die, and nothing will ever be able to snatch you away from it.
I pray that you come in contact with God’s love for you, in a
tangible way, then you will be able to love others.
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