one of the quotes on the side margin of my page is "this is the heart of the God to whom i belong, "My heart only has entrances. it doesn't have exits. whoever enters remains there. whatever he may do I love him the same as I loved him when he first entered into my heart." i put this quote there because as humans i realize it's hard for us to forgive, and much harder for us to forget, and every time i read it i'm overwhelmed by this truth. i'm constantly overwhelmed by the greatness of God's love for us.
like my relationship with my own parents, God doesn't stop loving his children or love them any less when they aren't perfect. my parents don't love me less when i get a C in a class versus getting an A. they wouldn't love me less if i chose to have a blue collared job rather than working towards a white collared position. God is the same way. he loves us like our parents do- loves us in our weaknesses and our strengths, with all our flaws. but God does an even better job at loving us, because unlike our parents, God is perfect. God loves us better in his perfection. we see an example of how much God loves us in luke 15, with the prodigal son.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." luke 15:20b
we all know this son was disobedient. we know this son made the wrong choices with the gifts he was given, and went against the advice of his father. but in the end, the son didn't even have to come all the way home. his father saw him from a distance and ran to him. God, like the father in the story, is proactive, coming to find his lost son. we are the sinners-the lost sons, and God comes to us. he never leaves us, he never strays from our sides. we choose to leave his side, we choose to disobey.
"for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave nor forsake you." ~deuteronomy 30:15
the amazing thing about God's love is that he always has his arms wide open to welcome us home, because not one of us is more worthy of God's love than another. we are all equally unworthy of His love, no matter how hard we may try to earn it.
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." ~romans 3:23
"there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. all have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." ~romans 3:10-12
no matter what we do, we can't earn the love God gives us, just like we can't earn or buy the love of our own parents. God loves us, and even with all our flaws and in all our mistakes, he comes running back to us. we deserve punishment, and should be spending our lives trying to earn our way to Heaven. we should have to make sacrifices like in the Old Testament to compensate for the great divide between God's perfection and our sinfulness or "climb the ladder" (so to say) to reach UP to God, to try to make ourselves worthy of receiving his love, but we are blessed.
we are so seriously blessed. because God is proactive. God brings himself down to earth, running to us after we've locked ourselves into a corner. God takes care of our punishment for us, freeing us from our sins. he sends Jesus to die for us, in our place. he saves us, he protects us from his own wrath and anger (because in his perfection, he can't let our disobedience go unpunished.) because he loves us so much, he saves us in our disobedience and from our disobedience.
"but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." ~romans 5:8
it is only through God's great love for us that we can be good, having accepted this free gift of salvation. because God comes down to us, our reaching up trying to earn His love is futile. all we have to do is accept the grace He comes down to offer to us. all we have to do is open our hearts to Him in return.
"you do not delight in sacrifice, or i would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" ~psalm 51:17
"but as for me, i will always have hope; i will praise you more and more. my mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though i know not its measure. i will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD; i will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone." ~psalm 71:14-16
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