As I’ve been reading and studying God’s word lately, he has been impressing on my heart just how tender his love for us really is. A tenderness that we on this side of heaven cannot understand. We think of perfect love and are so limited by what we know and understand, but God’s love was so strong and so tender that he sent his most beloved son to die for us. It feels like some crazy tale out of a movie, not real life. And definitely not something we can, or likely ever will, fully grasp while on this earth.
Tender loving mercies. A love so great that he still pursues, still provides, still challenges, and still spends every minute of every day wanting to be with us. Who do you know that wants to be with you every minute of every day? I’m going to guess most of us don’t even have a spouse that can truly say they would want to spend that much time with us…but God does. I wonder how our lives would change if we spent every minute of every day trying to grasp the expanse of Christ’s love for us.
A love so great that our entire existence is meant to mold us to be more like him, our perfect heavenly father. C.S. Lewis said, “God allows us to feel the frailty of human love, so we’ll appreciate the strength of his.” We can read about Jesus, the greatest example of love on this earth, and still not grasp how perfect God’s love truly is. But even if our minds and hearts can’t grasp it, we know the truth of the love God offers.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
Love is, God is…
Patient.
Kind.
Rejoices in truth.
Bears all things.
Believes all things.
Hopes all things.
Endures all things.
Never ends.
God loves you and me with a tenderness, kindness, and patience that we cannot fathom, it’s never-ending. He celebrates truth, the truth about who he is and who we are to him, his child. He carries and supports all of our things; the good, the bad, and the ugly. He has confidence in us, how he made us, and who he is molding us to be. He already believes it; we don’t need to convince him. He desires the best for us and is there with us patiently waiting for the day it will be. His love NEVER ENDS. We are chosen and redeemed. He’s blessed us and he loves us so much that he can’t wait to spend eternity with us. You, my child, are loved beyond anything your heart or brain can fathom. Such perfect love.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Rachel Rae Anderson
Featured Image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay
