Transforming Love
If we could grasp a thread of how much we are loved by God, it would change everything.
Our relentless pursuit of love, admiration, and the applause of others would become unnecessary. Our feelings of worthlessness, shame, and doubt would lose their tight-fisted grip on our lives. Our anxious wandering and wondering would cease. Much of that needless rubbish is anchored in a deep desire to be loved or is the result of our insecurity from a lack thereof.
The thing is, we’re already deeply loved.
The unconditional love God lavishes on us has nothing to do with our lovability or actions. This is such good news. God’s love assures us that there is nothing we can or can not do to make him love us any more or any less. We don’t need to get it all right to earn his favor. We can cease striving. We don’t need to be at our best, and it doesn’t matter if we are at our worst. Isn't that a relief?
His love offer remains, unwavering and unchanging. Even when we’ve deliberately ignored him, purposely gone the opposite direction, or couldn’t care less, this truth remains,
"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
This one act of God, sending his son to earth, demonstrates how immensely we are loved. His love is inextricably woven into the world and into our very souls.
His love assures us that we are infinitely valuable. So valuable that he would allow Jesus to die in our place. By his sacrificial death, we are made right in God’s sight. Not from our good deeds or any other attempts at righteousness, but by simply accepting his offer of love. A love so beyond compare that he sent his son to live and die to ensure we could receive it. Receive him.
No one is disqualified. Everyone is invited. You are invited. Can’t you feel your chest relax in a long exhale with this good news? God longs for a relationship with us, and once we link arms with him and accept his invitation, we are secured and transformed by his love. We never need to question his love or our worth. His love reshapes our self-perception and alters how we view others who are different from us.
By walking alongside Jesus, we gradually become more like him. We begin to think like him and do the things he does. It is nothing short of miraculous, this love transformation, not something that can be manufactured by human grit but only by the grace of God. Isn’t it refreshing to be reminded that we are loved unconditionally by the Maker of the universe with a love that never lets us go?
"For He has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" (Hebrews 13:5a)
His is an ever-available, transforming love that we can embrace this Christmas, this moment, and all year long. Perhaps this Advent, we will cease striving to be loved and fall into the outstretched arms of our Savior, who assures us,
“I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)
Blessings of peace, joy, and love to you this Christmas, and all year long.
