God's Love, Every Day

He loves to say your name and He always says it with love.

I love love. Don’t you?

I once read an article about a group of professional people asking young children, “What does love mean?” What great answers they gave.

Bobby, age 7 – Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas, if you stop opening presents and listen. Nikka, age 6 – If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate. Karen, age 7 – When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you. (And this one is especially touching to me) Billy, age 4 – When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.

Have you played board games with 4, 6, and 8 year-olds? Gee golly, it does take a great deal of patience. After each time of moving their game piece they have to count how many spaces they need to go to win. They shake the dice onto the floor, argue about exactly whose rules we are using (because each one has their own version of the rules!), and can’t remember whose turn it is. If I didn’t love my grandchildren so much I might have to declare, “Umm, no, I don’t do board games.”

But I do love them. I appreciate watching their little brains work, and how they try to strategize the game. They are just being themselves. They know they are safe with me. They are confident in my love for them.

Are you confident in God’s love for you? Do you believe that He loves you? Do you really believe it? I spent way too many years trapped in the assumption that I was not worthy of God’s love, that I had to work extra hard to attempt to earn it. Until I met Jesus (at age 28) I had not had a really healthy, honest relationship. I wanted someone to see me, but I kept trying to be whatever somebody else wanted me to be so that they would love me. I was so convinced that I was unlovable that often I acted that way. Can anyone relate?

It took me a long time to learn, but here’s the short story. There is no method to God loving us! He just does. We don’t have to DO anything. He isn’t the least worried about our flaws, or if we are trying to play the game by our own rules. He is eventually going to fix those things anyhow. He is not worried about our sin. He sent His Son to the cross to take care of that. He doesn’t care what you look like (He made you!) He doesn’t care if you are a little smart or a lot smart. Or if you have accomplished little things or big things. It doesn’t matter to Him. I am telling you something that I know is true. He just plain Loves you – right where you are, just the way you are.

Psalm 118:1 states, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Everlasting – lasts forever. His love is the only love that is ever present and everlasting. He won’t ever not love you!

You are God’s favorite. I am His favorite. I know how He does that. My oldest grandson tells me he knows he is my favorite because he is the first. I tell him yes he is, but don’t tell the others. But I tell the others they are my favorite, as well, because they are.

So, you ARE God’s favorite. You are the only you He has. He knows your name. He loves to say your name. He will never say your name with condemnation, rejection or contempt. He will always and only speak your name with acceptance and love.

On a recent camping trip Bob and I played ping pong with the grandkids at the game room. Esme, age 4, is too short to play at the table so she became the ball chaser. Every time she brought the ball back to Grandad he said, “Thank you, Love.”

“Grandad,” she said, “when you say ‘Love’ to me, it makes my feelings feel good.”

Ah, yes! God is saying ‘Love’ to us every day – in His Word, in the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in the beauty of the world around us, in every breath that we breathe. Indeed, it sure does make my feelings feel good.

I love love. Don’t you?

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