Imagine Heaven DevotionalSample

The Brightest Love

It was 1943 in Camp Barkley, Texas, and George Ritchie had enlisted to fight the Nazis. In the middle of boot camp, he woke up at midnight, heart pounding, with a 106-degree fever. During x-rays, he passed out. The attending doctor declared him dead. Years later as a medical doctor, George would display his death certificate whenever he spoke about his life-changing encounter:

It was impossibly bright: it was like a million welders’ lamps all blazing at once. And right in the middle of my amazement came a prosaic thought, probably born of some biology lecture back at the university: “I’m glad I don’t have physical eyes at this moment,” I thought. “This light would destroy the retina in a tenth of a second.” 

[But] now I saw that it was not light, but a Man who had entered the room, or rather, a Man made out of light. . . . 

The instant I perceived Him, a command formed itself in my mind. “Stand up!” . . . I got to my feet, and as I did came the stupendous certainty: You are in the presence of the Son of God. . . . [From His presence came] a love beyond my wildest imagining. This love knew every unlovable thing about me—every mean, selfish thought and action since the day I was born—and accepted and loved me just the same. . . . 

Filling the world with Himself and yet somehow attending to me personally. Waiting for my answer to the question that still hung in the dazzling air. What have you done with your life to show Me?. . . The question, like everything else proceeding from Him, had to do with love. How much have you loved with your life?

You are lavishly and unconditionally loved by Jesus! Despite all you have done or failed to do, you are fully and completely loved. Sometimes you may hear thoughts in your head telling you that you are not worthy. Reject them—they are lies! Instead, focus on staying connected to God’s love every moment of every day, as Jesus encourages in the words of John 15:9. As you do this, He will infuse His love into your heart and mind and then into your relationships, helping you extend this same merciful love toward the people He puts in your path. 

Heavenly Father, thank you for the amazing, unconditional, incomparable love of Jesus. Amen.

Taken from George G. Ritchie and Elizabeth Sherrill, Return from Tomorrow (Grand Rapids: Chosen, 2007), Kindle edition, loc. 36–55.