Love in uncertainty…
Over the years I’ve encountered a lot of individuals that have shared about how they sense that God loves them (mostly because He has to), but doesn’t necessarily like them.
A question that has hit home for many is this:
When God thinks about you by name, what’s the first thing that comes to His mind?
Is it love? Or do you think it’s disappointment? Sadly, many feel like He’s disappointed.
When we miss the incredible love that God has for us, it can lead to a ceaseless striving to earn something that was given to us freely - His love. In fact, Romans 5 explains that God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were dead set on going the opposite direction (turning our backs on Him) that Jesus gave His life for us. It’s this unbreakable love that anchors us in the midst of uncertainty.
Turns out, God’s love for you is so great that He moved into the neighborhood as a human himself… not just to die, but to show us how to truly live.
The beautiful narrative of scripture is that God is crazy about you.
A few questions for reflection:
How might your perception of how God thinks about you need to change?
How might God be inviting you to experience His love in a new way this advent season?
A prayer for this week:
Grandparenting God,
you see our sin as symptomatic stutter,
self-effacing struggle to ignore the confounding
reality of your willful vulnerability:
“I love you because I can't do anything else.
I made you,
every last part of you:
all that's hidden and all that's revealed,
all that's muddled and even all that's clear.
You are,
at the risk of repeating myself, dear to me.
You are precious in my eyes
because…
just because you are mine.
That's enough for me.
And it will have to do for you.
Wrestle with it until you get tired and then relax and give in.
Take a deep breath and enjoy.”
- Broken Record by Michael Mornahan, SJ
