He loved me first.
He’s never too busy.
He treated men and women equally in a time when no-one else did.
Everything I love was made by Him.
He invited me into His family.
He will never abandon me or leave me or hurt me.
He knows me inside-out and still, He stays.
He hates injustice and abuse.
He is Lord over all creation – yet He made Himself a tiny dependent baby.
When the soldiers said, “If you’re God’s son, come down from the cross,” He stayed. For me.
He practised what He preached.
There is no-one like Him.
He was exhausted and persecuted yet He still had compassion on the people who crowded around Him.
Everything He has, He shares with us.
He loves His Dad and tells everyone how much.
He sees what we try to keep hidden and He says, “come into the light.”
He gives everything; including Himself.
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple. Psalm 27:4
Image source
Wonderful! And, I think deep down, there’s this growing awareness of why I love Him: His Daddy loves Him! I’ve always wanted a dad like His!
It blew me away, when a few months ago, a Jewish Christian friend told me about the first time the word “love” appears in the Bible. It was not love between Adam and Eve (or between any man or woman). It was not a love that a mother has for her child. It was not even God loving mankind. As it says in Genesis 22,
“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, WHOM YOU LOVE, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Here, the word “love” is spoken for the first time, and in speaking it, God defines it relationally as “a father loving his only son.” Sound familiar? I cannot adequately tell you what a thrill it was for me to hear this, that love IS the Father loving His Son! And, if such a Father is loving His Son, Who is loving me through all the ways you shared and more (!), then it means that I (we) don’t have to do anything but rest in THIS God’s love, with my (our) heads resting on Jesus’ chest as His is resting on His Father’s chest. As hard as it is for me to describe it, when I heard how God defines “love,” it was the first time I wasn’t jealous of this special Father/Son relationship. (I certainly didn’t have anything like this kind of relationship with my earthly dad.) It seemed like I heard for the first time in the most fundamental way, “You, dear daughter, are included, BECAUSE I’ve always been loving My Son-the focus of my delight; and, you’ve listened to Him, so you’re right here with Us.”
Yup, I love Him because His Daddy loves Him!
There is nothing that I can do to make Him love me any more or nothing I can do to make Him love me any less!!!!
Amen! Thrilling truths
“everything I love was made by him”
I really struggle to get the ‘big’ jesus things (basically almost all the things) and the question of ‘why do I love him?’ terrifies me when I don’t know how to answer and don’t understand what I feel I ought to…
But if I look at everything physical and concrete in front of me, that I love, and think that he made them – for me! that seems amazing at least… :)
I know what you mean! The devil’s not in the detail after all. Jesus is!