“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16……. “We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19……… “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1 Decades ago, as a young person, I was so excited to come back to the United States from where I was living abroad for a little while to surprise my beloved Mom at a big birthday surprise party for her. I had the perfect dress I knew she would love, and I was perfectly ecstatic at the prospect of surprising her as I would be among the many guests at a really fancy hotel party my Dad had organized for her. Oh, the joy I experienced to watch how delighted she was to see me as she threw her arms wide open and came rushing toward me to give me a hug. There was only one problem. My Mom looked over my shoulder and saw someone else dear to her who captured her attention so much so that she rushed right past me to joyfully hug that person instead of me her daughter. For as long as I can remember, despite the fact my Mom does love me, and despite I love her exceedingly, she has made plain and clear that I am low down on her priority list and come after everything and everyone on her to-do lists. She normally squeezes in a few hours for a precious few days a year to see me, squeezes me into her schedule for phone calls after she has taken care of everything else important to her, and in one way or another, this is how it has always been. This, coupled with a tragic, incredibly painful family situation, well, you can imagine the scars I bear from decades of hurt and sadness. I was kicked out of my family decades ago as a result of talking about something that happened long ago. Though I now am blessed with some contact with a few family members, it is limited and fragile. And, yes, every day of my life, even when I am not overly conscious of it, deep within, given how dearly I love my beloved family, I hurt. Why do I tell you this? For pity? No! Because I have a message for you. We all have our hurts in life, don’t we? And we probably have all experienced rejection to one degree or another. But there is an intimate, personal, unconditional, unfathomable love so amazing, so astonishingly beautiful, lovely, wonderful, exhilarating, joyful, peaceful, rich, vibrant, passionate, kind, fulfilling, healing, life-giving, life-changing, generous, inspiring, and passionate that any hurt we have experienced in the way of the imperfect and fallible love of humans pales in comparison. And that is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ whose love is so phenomenal that He died on the cross to pay our sin penalty and was raised from the dead so all who turn from our sins and believe in Him as Lord, truly devoting our lives to God and His ways, are forgiven and given a forever relationship with the Lord. And, each and every day and forever, the Lord loves His followers with a love beyond comprehension, a love beyond measure, a love beyond anything we can possibly imagine, a love for us with which no love on this earth can possibly compare! Do you know the love of Jesus personally? Do you know the Lord is available to His children night and day? Do you know He does not go running past His children with His arms wide open because the person across the room is more important to Him that we are? Do you know He always has time for us? Do you know He doesn’t have to squeeze us into His schedule? Do you know He is delighted when we want to spend time loving and worshiping Him? When we want to be in His presence? When we hunger and thirst for time alone with Him? When we yearn to be with Him? Oh, how Jesus love His followers! Are you His?
