“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” [1 John 4:16]
A FRIEND in the midst of a long, hard battle with breast cancer once wrote to tell me how she had come through the experience with a deeper comprehension of the love of God, as seen through her husband’s response to her double mastectomy.
“As we wept and trembled when he took off my bandages for the first time, I was so ugly, scarred, and bald. I was in intense grief that I could never be a whole wife to him again. But he held me tightly and with tears in his eyes said, ‘Honey, I love you—because that is who I am.’
“I instantly recognized Christ in my husband,” she continued. “As His bride, we are also eaten up with cancer—sin—and are scarred, mutilated, and ugly. But He loves us because that is who He is. No comeliness in us draws Christ’s attention; it is only His essence that draws Him to us.”
Yes, God does love us. Whether or not we feel loved, regardless of what we have done or where we have come from, He loves us with an infinite, incomprehensible love—not because we are lovely or lovable but because He is love.
If you are His child, trusting in Him for salvation, you are no longer His enemy. In spite of your rebellion and your alienation from Him, He has loved you and sent His Son to die for you. He loved you in eternity past; He will love you for all eternity future. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less, and nothing you can do to make Him love you more. That’s just who He is.
When does His love seem the most distant from you?
Knowing that nothing can ever separate you from His love (Rom. 8:38–39), what are some possible reasons for your feelings? [The Quiet Time]
