We May Not Realize...နမူနာ

... how much He loves us.

Most people in the Western world - even non-Christians - are familiar with John 3:16, how "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son" (John 3:16) to save us. Jesus' willingness to sacrifice Himself was the most beautiful expression of God's love for His children, but we may not realize just how deep and enduring that love is.

God's love for His children is both abiding and relentless. This is to say, He will never leave us, nor will He ever give up on us. As David describes it in Psalm 136, "His faithful love endures forever!"

The prophet Jeremiah echoes this sentiment:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. (Lamentations 3:22‭-‬23)

The Apostle Paul further affirms what David and Jeremiah wrote, that God's love for us is both everlasting and inviolable (Romans 8:35-39).

Throughout Scripture, we see numerous examples of God demonstrating a father's love for us. He cares deeply and personally for each and every one of His children (1 Peter 5:6-7). In our times of trouble, He is there with us (Romans 5:3-5); we never have to face any challenge alone. And like any good father, concerned with the character development of his children, our Heavenly Father isn't lax to discipline us when we need moral correction (Hebrews 12:6).

Perhaps the most mind-blowing feature of God's love for us is how freely He extends it - this in spite of how absolutely undeserving we are. The Book of Ephesians describes it this way:

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (Ephesians 2:4‭-‬5)

Why though? Why in such a wretched, sinful state would He choose to love and redeem us at all? It is because - as the Apostle John makes clear in his first epistle - God is love. Our human capacity to love - to love Him in return and to mirror that same love with one another - is the result of His having first loved us (1 John 4:8, 19).