Sitting here listening to Crowder’s version of the song “How He Loves” and several thoughts race my mind. 1, how incredible is it that God, are you feeling me, GOD, the creator of all things loves me. Well, and you too. I honestly can’t comprehend that thought. I mean, I can’t actually wrap my mind around the thought of THE GOD cares about me, loves me and wants to spend time with me. Growing up in a Christian family it’s something I’ve heard and known as far back as I can remember, but it still amazes me every time I take a few moments to reflect.
What strikes me tonight isn’t the overwhelming fact that God loves me. You see what strikes me tonight is that God loves everyone on the face of the earth the same way he loves me… The lady that was backing up traffic because she had her map out on her steering wheel? Yep! The guy with the bad attitude in line at Starbucks? Yes sir. The person that I have such disdain for that I don’t know that I’ll truly ever have “total” forgiveness for them? Yeah, them too. Honestly, I struggle(hate) with that part. I sometimes want God to just stay loving me and well, the people that I decide it’s “OK” for Him to love. Wow… Talk about transparency, haha.
Have you, maybe subconsciously, decided who and who not it’s “OK” for God to love? I realize I do it all of the time. Pretty lame, huh? I think about King David crying out to God asking Him to kill or wipe out his enemies for him and I can identify. I think of Jonah sitting and throwing a pity party for himself over God saving the city of Nineveh when he (Jonah) didn’t think they were worth saving. Jonah just got done preaching to those people and over 100,000 people repented of their ways and began to follow God, but Jonah didn’t REALLY think God should forgive them… Yeah, I identify with that one too. Let’s be honest, you do as well.
But you see if God loves me, if God loves you, then He has to love others, even the ones that we don’t really want Him to, He has to. Love is God’s nature. God is love. There is no real love without God. So as an innately selfish person (again, let’s be honest, we’re all born selfish) if you want God’s love, you/I/we have to accept that God loves everyone and that He wants us to share His love with them. Realistically, if we can’t share His love then do we really have His love in our lives? I sure don’t want to be the judge of that question…
iTunes moves down the playlist, the old hymn, “Lord I Need You” comes up. How fitting. “Lord, I need you, oh I need You. Every hour I need You. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need You.” If I need Him, then so do you and so does everyone you and I encounter. Does that thought make a difference in what we’ll do tomorrow? Maybe… Or maybe Him loving us isn’t that big of a deal that we feel like we need to share it… “He loves us”… So what? What are YOU/I/WE going to do with that love?