LOTS. I often ask my wife, “How
much do you love me?” She always says, “Lots!” And if she can sense I’m being
especially cheeky or vulnerable she says, “Lots and lots…” She doesn’t want to
make it more than jest because it’s plain that she loves me loads. How can she
love me any more than she does?
When we seriously
ask God how much he loves us, we need to open our Bibles. In the Old Book there’s
verse after verse alluding to God’s loving wisdom; how he designed us from
before the time we entered our mother’s womb (Psalm 139); that, while we were
still sinners, Christ died for each of us (Romans 5:8).
God wanted us
before we were born. Christ died for us that we might live.
Can we even begin
to imagine how special to God that we each are; how uniquely designed and
formed and blessed of life?
We will never
quite comprehend just how special we are to God. But God will reveal that to us
in Glory. We may think we’re not that special if another seven billion plus
souls are equally special. According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) one-hundred-seven (107) billion people have ever lived. That was the 2011 figure, by the way. That means over
one-hundred billion are already dead. All those people have gone into God’s
care, and many of them are in heaven.
God loved every
single one. He oversaw each of them as they were created. He oversaw their
lives in every detail. He knew how each would live. He knew beforehand what
choices they’d make; for him or against him. And yet he still loved each and
every one. He loved each one that much that he gave them their will.
He loves you no
less than his own Son, Jesus Christ, of Nazareth. And Jesus loved you that much
he went to the cross for you. You’re not common. You’re singular. You will meet
God one day, all on your own. It’s just us and God when we depart this life. Of
course, it won’t remain that way; we imagine that we’ll reacquaint with many we
know and love who’ve departed.
Recording artist,
Nathan Tasker, says in his music, “God cannot love you more, and will not love
you less.” God’s love is the fullest possible expression of unconditional love;
and, especially as we consider how sinful we are, God’s love is crazy. It makes
no sense to us, except if we’re a parent — then we have some idea of the
craziness of love that becomes unconditional.
God’s love: a crazy
mystery. Crazy: how much we’re loved. Mystery: why we’re loved. Jesus explains
both.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.
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