How can I know God loves me? When it comes to children and spiritual truth, I’m never sure who is the teacher and who is the student.
Such was the case during a conversation I had with my oldest granddaughter, Lauren, when she was around four years old.
“Gigi!” she said as she bounced into my house one Friday morning. (If you’ve spent any time lately around preschool girls, you know that every statement ends in an exclamation point, and that they run, skip, bounce, or hop everywhere. Walking is never an option.)
“I drew you a picture so you’d remember me while I’m in New-Ork.” She waved the masterpiece in her hand. “See, it’s you and me on a mountain. And I wrote my name on the bottom so you’d merember who drawed it.”
“You know something?” I said, scooping her up and twirling her around in a happy circle. “I think about you every day. Every. Single. Day. You know why?”
She thought a moment, then said matter-of-factly, “Because you love me?”
“Yup. Because I love you. And you know what? There’s someone else who thinks about you every single day. Can you guess who?”
She thought a little longer, following the trajectory of my thoughts.
“God?”
“Yup.” Her blue eyes lit up with the success of nailing the correct answer.
“He thinks about you every single day . . . Do you know why?”
The pause was longer this time, but then, “. . . because he loves me?”
“Yes!” I said, “He loves you so much he never stops thinking about you.”
This heartache . . . if God loves me, then he can heal my heart and restore my joy.
When Jesus said we must become as little children to see the kingdom of God, I think he had in mind simple conversations like this one. If we, like little Lauren, accepted without conditions the fact that God loves us and never stops thinking about us, it would eliminate much of the angst we feel every day.
This circumstance I’m experiencing . . . if God loves me, then I can trust him to use it for good in my life.
This hard path I’m walking on . . . if God loves me, then he won’t abandon me to face it alone.
What are you going through right now? Would it look different if you viewed it through the certainty of God’s love?
Try it and see. Then trust, pray, and rest.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
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Each devotion ends with a Power Point (a spiritual truth to empower your faith) and a Praise Prompt (a short prayer designed to magnify God and make your faith soar). The Live It Out section challenges you to apply what you’ve learned right now for immediate change.
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Amen ma’am. If only we would remember that His love is always there for us perhaps we would learn to draw nigh to Him more often than we do.
I think you’re right, J.D. As with our relationships with others here on earth, when we are confident in their love, we feel free to approach them even on our worst days. We dont’ have to put our perfect face on for them. I’m so glad God loves us at our best and at our worst. Thanks for chiming in today!
So many problems in people’s lives occur because they do not feel loved. God’s love is the one that reaches deeper than any human can and heal every hurt.
You’re so right, Barbara. I believe the human need to be loved is perhaps the greatest need of all–one God fulfills completely. What a privilege that we should be called the sons (and daughters) of God. Thank you, Father, for loving us!