There are none of us who have been given any less than the fully immersive love of our Savior Jesus Christ. No not one. We are the all for whom He died to show and prove and give this love.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
1 John 3:1a
How dare He!
The manner of this love… it’s outrageous, scandalous, incomprehensible…
that WE (look at us! we’re awful) should be called His very own children.
But have you seen how He led a king to write and tell us what God knows of us, who He says we are, every single individual who ever is, in Psalm 139? Hundreds of years after He formed the first ever man from the earth and hundreds of years before all His love in the form of man, Christ our Savior, walked the earth, He gave us this song, a glimmering glimpse of ourselves, how He sees us and has known us before anyone else ever could.
He saw us before we were formed, wrote down every precious one of each of our days before a single one existed. He lovingly crafted every detail of us, from the inside out, this fashioning so cherished it was done in secret, just you and Him, the very first of our days His desire to have us all to Himself.
Ever since we were a thought to Him, He has never ceased to think of us; were it possible to count His thoughts, they would be more in number than the sand. Yet He has not limited Himself to merely thinking of you; He searches us, inside out, top to bottom, side to side, knowing us, where we are and where we’re not, what we’re doing, understanding our thoughts before they arrive at the tip of our brain, our words before they reach the tip of our tongue. He comprehends us, is acquainted with every aspect of us; He’s behind us and before us with His hand laid upon us. He leads us and holds us and annihilates any darkness trying to smother us. There’s nowhere we can go, nowhere we can run, no sitting, no lying down, nowhere high or low, far far away or deep deep in the ocean depths but that He is already there, there, THERE!
Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord. Psalm 23:6
The manner of His knowing, goodness, and mercy pursues, chases after, is in the wake of our every movement.
The manner of the love He bestowed (lavished!) on us?
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
And this from Christ, Love Himself:
So this is My command: Love each other deeply, as much as I have loved you. For the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends. John 15:12-13
Can there be any better proof made than all this thinking and forming and knowing; searching, understanding, holding; following, pursuing, lavishing, and demonstration of His sacrificial love for every little one of us that He can be trusted to know what He is doing, that He knows exactly who we are, who He’s after, that He’s made no mistake about who He’s lavishing His cherishing love all over?
It’s you!
Outrageous, incomprehensible… and undeniably true!
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image by ben kerckx on pixabay