Ephesians: Tear Down These WallsShembull

Before our first son was born, I couldn’t really say in any meaningful way that I loved him. How could I? I didn’t even know him!

Don’t get me wrong, I was both excited and nervous about the idea of being a Father. The closer we got to the due date the more real it seemed. But it wasn’t until I was actually holding my son in my arms, that a real, new, and fierce love entered my heart. It’s hard for me to even explain that love now, let alone imagine it before the birth had happened. 

These verses speak of God’s eternal, infinite love. That he loved us before we were born. More than that, before the foundation of the earth was laid. Before you even existed, God knew you, and loved you. 

What a staggering, head-shaking truth that is. Before God had even spoken an atom into existence, you were on his heart! In eternity past, God had set his affection upon you. Wow! 

As limited creatures, we can only comprehend love in time and space. But God’s love is an eternal, “always and forever” love, to borrow Sally-Lloyd Jones’s term. Love was not created when God created us! God is love (1 John 4:8) and he loved us always.

The result of that love is that God chose you to be his. He adopted you into his family. God has loved us all the way into his home! 

He did this because he wanted to. It gave him great pleasure and joy to do so. God does not say “I love you” through clenched teeth. No-one twisted His arm. He wanted to. Sometimes, I think we struggle to believe that’s true. 

If we could only comprehend a fraction of the extent and fulness of God’s love today, we’d be singing our way to our next appointment. 

You. Yes you. Are. Loved. God loves YOU! He doesn’t just like you, or put up with you. He loves you. You are his. You’re a part of his family, and he will never un-love you!