Lavishly Loved

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

Throughout these devotions you will see a lot of flowers in all their beauty. Get used to it.

Whether the flowers are part of a botanical garden or are growing in the wild, I am filled with awe and wonder at the creative beauty of God whenever I look upon them. Something moves deep within me. I can't help but think to myself, “God must really love me (us, everybody), to give us such beauty to enjoy.” For me, the beauty of the world around me is confirmation of the love that God has for us. Because I have already known God's love through his Son, as God's love has been shared with me and shown to me through the church and my family and friends, then God's love amplifies my appreciation for the world around me. I know that God has loved me lavishly, and the beauty of creation just confirms that for me.

I'm sure not everybody has that feeling. Some people don't believe that God loves them. Maybe it's not personal—God is just far-off, watching from a distance, and doesn't really care either way. Maybe it's because they think that they haven't lived a good enough life to deserve the love of the God of the universe. Maybe it's because they understand God to be an angry tyrant. Whatever it is, my heart is sad for those who don't know that God loves them.

In thinking about what it means to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (see yesterday's devotion, “The Fellowship of the Hair Net”), I have to ask myself, “What is my motivation for loving God with my whole being?” Is it because I'm afraid that if I don't love God, then God's gonna smite me? Is it because I am commanded by the word of God to love God, and so I love God simply out of a sense of duty and obedience?

Or do I love God because God has first loved me?

I choose the latter.

In my own spiritual journey, my relationship with God has gone back and forth between legalistic obligation, and love. Not that obligation and love are mutually exclusive; it's just that now I firmly believe that it is better if love is the motivation for my obligation and duty toward God, and not vice-versa.

I love God, because God has first loved me. It is when I have experienced God's love for me that my love for God is most alive. It is when I have experienced God's love for me that my duty and obligation to live as one of God's children are something that I embrace with joy.

Back to the flowers for a moment. The flowers aren't what convince me that God loves me; they simply confirm what I have learned through Jesus Christ. If I didn't have the benefit of the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ written on my heart, then nothing in creation would truly convince me of God's LOVE. I would be impressed, to be sure. I would know that God is mighty and awesome, maybe even kind and caring. But it took the incarnation of God in his Son, Jesus Christ, to fully declare God's steadfast love in such a way as to be unmistakably clear.

It is only when I know the magnitude of God's love for me in Jesus Christ that I can now behold the beauty of the world around me and think of it all as a gift of God's love. If you think the creation is beautiful, you should consider its Creator—not just in terms of power and might and creative beauty, but most of all in terms of love. When you can look at the world through the lens of the knowledge that God loves you lavishly, then suddenly everything takes on new meaning.

Know that God loves you, abundantly, lavishly. Let that truth frame everything else in your life.

How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us...