I was surrounded by love. At three years old, it seemed to me that everyone I came into contact with loved me – parents, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbours. And as far as I could tell, they all loved each other, too. It was in this environment that I learned that God loved me, Jesus loved me. There was unconditional love all around me.
As I grew older, I realized all was not as rosy, as loving as my infant heart had believed. Some of what looked like love between people around me covered indifference or even dislike in a socially acceptable form. I even learned the first hard lesson that not everyone loved me – or even liked me.
But if the love of people around me was changeable, depending on moods, actions or perceptions, Love couldn’t be unconditional.
It took me many more years, into adulthood, to appreciate the hymn I learned in Sunday School and to know, in both mind and heart, that unconditional love really does exist. God’s love is unconditional.
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
It wasn’t enough for the Bible (or the Hymn book) to tell me this. I had to experience God’s grace before I could accept his unconditional love. Then I understood, in my heart what the Bible was telling me:
God ... has blessed us with every spiritual blessing of heaven in Christ. Even before the world was made, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault. [1]
Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits. Thank the God of all gods, His love never quits. Thank the Lord of all lords. His love never quits.[2]
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.[3]
What a difference that made in my life!
I don’t have to be loveable, or even likeable, for God’s love to overflow into me.
I don’t have to do anything to be God’s beloved.
God loves me nbecause it is God’s nature, not because of what I am.
God pours out grace to each one of us, accepting us as we are, not as we think we are, or want to be, or think we should be. As we are! As the Creator God made us! God offers us pardon and life in the Divine Spirit.
All we have to do is to let God into our lives. St Paul says that nothing in all creation can separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus”[4]. Nothing, not even ourselves. Try it!
Points to Ponder:
What difference does it make in your life to know that you are God’s beloved?
Does it mean you can accept yourself as you are, or does it make you want to grow in faith to please your Divine lover?
Prayer
Loving God, I thank you that I am your beloved child, loved unconditionally, imperfect as I am. Amen
