Every day before I write here, I ask Jesus what it is He wants me to say. What it is He wants to show me and speak to me and teach me. Today, as I sat down with Him, all I heard Him say was, “I love you. Hear that. Know that. Learn that. Share that. I really truly, madly, deeply love you. Tell them that I love them like that.”
And so this morning I am wrapping myself up in the warmth and goodness of that simple thought. Simple, yet profound beyond words. Life-changing even.
Do you so know that today? Do you know that the God of the Universe adores you? He longs to be your Father who draws you in close and tells you stories full of adventure and romance. He wants to be the friend who listens to you, shares every tear and every smile, who listens to your secrets and confides in you as well. He asks for your hand in the sacred dance of being the lover of your soul who knows you to your core and loves you even more fiercely any way. Jesus loves you, friend. He really, truly, madly, deeply loves you.
He allowed Himself to come here as a baby – vulnerable and susceptible to everything that you and I experience. Dependent on others to care for His human needs. Utter and complete humility. He did that for you. Because He really, truly, madly, deeply loves you.
He is the one who left everything perfect and glorious and beautiful to come and find you. He dropped everything to rescue you. He left His home, His position, a life free of worry and hunger and pain, to come to a place where He would be unrecognized, misunderstood, hurt, betrayed, denied. Where He would be tired and His stomach would growl and He would get splinters from having a job as a carpenter, a manual laborer. But He had a goal, a vision. He was coming to get you, to save you. And He knew that it was worth it. Because He really, truly, madly, deeply loved you.
He was used and abused. People followed Him for what they could get from Him – miracles, healing. Even his friends let Him down. One of them sold Him out. As if He was only worth a handful of coins. The God of the universe bought. Absolute lunacy. But you were His mission, His focus. He really, truly, madly, deeply loved you.
They shoved a crown of thorns on His head. Beat Him to a pulp. Spit on Him. Mocked Him. Falsely accused Him. They hung Him on the cross as some kind of criminal. A grueling death of suffocation. And with each laboring breath, until His last gasp of air, you were on His mind. And when He said, “It is finished”, He knew that He had accomplished what He came to do. He had rescued and saved you, His true love. Because He really, truly, madly, deeply loved you.
Three days later, when the tomb was empty, He was very much alive. He had done it! He killed death. He brought life. For you. For me. And every day since, every moment since, He has declared His devotion, His passion, by saying, “I really, truly, madly, deeply love YOU!!!”
Please, please know in a new way today the simple, yet incomprehensible thought that you are wholly, completely, incredibly loved…..
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:9-11
