Every now and then we need to be reminded that God really loves us. Some of us struggle with this notion especially when we have sinned or experienced a shortcoming. Some times we don’t feel very lovable. But consider this:
- Before you were ever formed in you mother’s womb God knew you and loved you (Jer. 1:4)
- God knit you together in your mother’s womb (Ps 139:13)
- You are fearfully wonderfully made (Ps 139:14)
- Every one of your days and deeds were written in God’s book before one of them ever came to be. (Ps. 139:16)
So God knew you and planned for you. You cannot earn his love you already have it. In fact you had it before you were born, before you had done anything. As for your sins God knew all about them too. Sin does not cancel God’s love but it does limit and ultimately sever our acceptance of that love. “Ah but what about Hell?” you might say. Yes a great tragedy, but do you suppose that God’s love does not extend there also? After all God does not destroy the souls in hell. He still sustains and provides for them. He loves them still. It is they who do not love him or His kingdom and he will not force it on them.
So face it God loves you, he even likes you. He does not love you because you deserve it. He loves you for “no good reason.” His love cannot be explained in any human terms. He loves you simply because he does, because he is Love. If you have never experienced this love, get on your knees and ask for this necessary gift.
Maybe these videos will help. The first one is a beautiful musical reflection by Don Francisco “I’ll Never Let Go of Your Hand” (available at iTunes). The Second one I have posted before about a young firefighter who powerfully experiences the unmerited love that God has for him.
This was the closing theme of the book I finished today:
“There remains within us a love that can be awakened by the sheer grace of His love’s desire for us, *if we fully accept it*. Yet, as we all know, we find this incredibly difficult. Perhaps this is why the observation has been made that most of us seem to assume that union with God is attained by laboriously ascending a ladder of virtues, which finally fashion our holiness and make us fit for Him. In truth, the reverse is far more accurate: the great saints and mystics have been those who fully accepted *God’s* love for *them*. It is this which makes everything else possible. Our incredulity in the face of God’s immense love, and also self-hate or an unyielding sense of guilt, can be formidable obstacles to God’s love, and are often subtle and unrecognised forms of pride, in putting our ‘bad’ above his mercy.”
– “Too Deep For Words” by Thelma Hall r.c.
and
“Psychiatry yields up the prime insight that loving acceptance as we are known, as we are revealed, in our misery and disorder, is what we all crave, even as we are inclined tragically, to disbelieve it”
– Dominic Rover O.P.
Thanks for the bambi video. Really beautiful imagery, really touching. Oh, our God is so wondrous!