Joy in the Morning: A 6-Day Devotional by Tauren WellsSample

DAY SIX | CRAZY ABOUT YOU

Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-10, Isaiah 54:10, Galatians 2:20

He’s crazy about you

Didn’t wanna live without you

He traded the stars for a chance at your heart

Just to show you it’s true

I was tucking Navy, my then three-year-old, into bed one night when a new tradition began. I told him the usual, “I love you, bud,” and just as I was slipping out the door, his little voice burst out, “I love you more!” Now I couldn’t just leave letting him think he loved me more than I loved him, so a game of who loves who the most erupted—"I love you most!” “I love you most, most!” “I love you most most most most!” Until I finally delivered the final blow: “I love you infinity times infinity!” I think I broke his brain, and his only response was a tired, little giggle from under his dinosaur covers.

Any parent will tell you how unexplainable the love we have for our children is. Sometimes Lorna and I look at our kids and say, I can’t believe those are our kids. Now, in full disclosure, there are other times when they’re acting like little urchins that couldn’t possibly come from our DNA, and I say the same thing in a different way… I can’t believe those are our kids, to which my wife responds, “No, those are your kids.” Regardless, we love them immeasurably and unconditionally, and we tell them that a lot.

There’s a high premium on love in our culture, and there always has been. Between 2017-2020 65% of all songs published were about love. (Yes, someone counted.) We’ve got pseudo-romantic reality shows where contestants have signed up to battle their way through the opposition of others hoping to find their one true love. There are apps to help us find love or to help love find us, Christian dating websites, and people sliding in the dm’s in hopes of finding that special someone. The reality is that everyone wants to be loved.

I can’t tell you how times my wife asks me playfully, “Do you love me?” To which I respond, “Woman, I married you didn’t I?!" Just kidding—that one was for Bernie Mac. The truth is that there are times I tell her, “I can’t believe you love me and that I get to love you!” This an imperfect, human love. How much more perfectly does God love us? Have you considered lately that God actually loves you?

If you’re a skeptic, you may roll your eyes at that statement. If, perhaps, you’re a believer on the fringe, I know you’ve probably heard it a million times and that it seems like something that has no tangible impact on your day-to-day life. But maybe today this truth will hit differently. Maybe for the first time, you’re hearing that God totally, fully, wholly, and perfectly loves you—not a future version of you, not you dressed up in your Sunday best, not the you that you want everyone to think you are—just you!

If you’re a woman reading this, it’s the no make-up, scraggly hair, socks-with-a-hole-in-the-toe version of you that He loves. He loves your personality, loud or quiet. He loves you when you’re frantic and when you’re at peace. He just loves you. If you have a bunch of accomplishments, He’s proud of you, but He doesn’t love you any more or less because of them. He loves you when the house isn’t cleaned, when your closet looks like a bomb just went off, when you haven’t updated your calendar in a month—not the I’ve-got-it-all-together you—just you.

Fellas, all the same things apply to you, too. He’s loved you in every season of your life up to this point, and he always will. Live anywhere you want, drive whatever you want, achieve whatever you want. All that is great, but it doesn’t mean He loves you any more or less. You can’t earn what someone has chosen to give. If you’re not where you want to be in life yet, if you’ve struggled to make ends meet, if you haven’t thought much about goals and bottom-lines, then—you guessed it—He still loves you. In fact, He’s crazy about you!

This verse is so well-known, it may feel like a Hallmark blurb, but its implications are truly profound: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...” You could replace “the world” with your name. For God so so so so so so loved you…

This isn’t love by today’s cultural standards. It’s in a category all its own. It’s a sincere love, a strong love, a surpassing love, an unquenchable love, an intelligent love, an undivided love! We are loved by God.

This is the greatest reality that can ever be realized. I hope it captures your heart.

There’s not a moment you’re not on His mind

There’s no second guessing His sacrifice

He has paid it all ten million times over