Today as I sat in church, I was concentrating on what our Pastor was teaching us about God’s unconditional love. As I listened to his words… I noticed a boy sitting a few rows over that was playing with his chewing gum.
You know how kids grab the chewed up wad and stretch it out so it looks like taffy… then put it back in their mouth and do it all over again?!
I found myself thinking about how upset that would make my son. He has a real phobia against gum (common in OCD) and that would have sent him right over the edge!
That got my thoughts stirred up, and I recalled how many times a day I think of things like this… the many scenarios and situations that make me think of my children and how much they’d enjoy… or dislike… whatever ‘thing’ it may be.
I would do anything for my kids. I put their needs before my own… my heart breaks when they suffer… and it leaps when something great happens to/for them!
Sometimes my love for them is so intense it causes me pain. If I can’t fix something… or if they hurt (physically, mentally, or emotionally)… I ache for them.
I don’t like to let them… or watch them… ‘fall’… though I know this is how they learn and grow.
Now I realize this makes it sound like I was completely oblivious to what was being taught at church… but I was listening.
When I actually began putting together that the kind of love our Pastor was talking about … the unconditional and powerful love God has for EACH of his children (even me)… is the same kind of absolute and total love I have for my children… I was overwhelmed!
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! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1
At the end of the service, our Pastor challenged us. He asked us to pray… that we (individually and the church as a whole) could begin to grasp the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. To wrap our heads and arms around this idea… and to accept it!
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19
Can you even imagine that we are loved in such a way? I personally find it hard to believe, and I struggle to grasp what it really means (I’m hoping to change this).
I challenge each of you to let this sink in and to truly accept it as fact. I’d love to know I’m not the only one who struggles with this concept.
I know it will be life-changing… so, come on… I double dog dare ya!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
This was such a sweet post Bridget. I struggle with the same thing, how can He possibly love us that much? But he does, and it’s amazing
This was a great post Bridget! Sometimes I am stopped in my tracks by the thought of God’s great love for me. And often that thought comes in connection with my children and the idea that God loves me in the way I love them. Only a hundred fold. It is hard to get your head around. Completely amazing.
Meister Eckhart, the great religious mystic, said, “Everything I see, hear, touch, feel, taste, / speak, think, / imagine, // is completing a perfect circle / God has drawn.”
My own version of love, no matter how hard I try, still is marred by sin. To understand and take in to myself God’s perfect (sinless) love for me is just about impossible at times. But I’m going to keep trying! Thanks — this was a lovely post!
Great reminder Bridget! This is a truth that I need to continually remind myself of because it is WAY to easy for me to forget it. A great book that I just read on this subject is “The Search for Significance” by Robert McGee.
your post has helped me. i would like to let this sink in more and let it relate to my living. thank you for the double dog dare.
You’re so right Bridget. I can only imagine the impact it would make if we fully understood God’s love. It’s like we talk about it, but it becomes so mundane, so normal. Thanks for the reminder!
Ugh. I sooo agree. Sometimes when I think of my kids and how much I love them, it makes my heart just ache. I can’t go anywhere without thinking the same as you… they’d really like this (or not). I think God built that into us as part of the parenting thing. It just gives us yet one more way to experience how he feels about us.
Thanks so much for sharing your heart, Bridget. I love it.
You know, having kids really helps us get a closer understanding of God’s love for us, but I still don’t think it comes close. I posted an excerpt from a book written by Vince Antonucci a few months back, and I hope you don’t mind if I link it here. It’s a really great analogy.
How Can Jesus Love Me?
I remember reading this post and it was great! I’m glad you posted the link and I love the pic of the tattered bear.
The weirdest thing just happened. I have absolutely NO explanation for it.
I have a Word document opened and I am working on a proposal for a book on Visual Prayer. I was writing a brief history of my hatred of God to my complete adoration of Him. I went back to the beginning of the document to re-read what I’d written and I made some changes and scrolled down to the end.
And there was your sweet face and your Twitter: “One Word at a Time…’Unconditional’ (To love so much it hurts! ~ Great comments!) http://bit.ly/5FVyp9” In its own little box, as if I had inserted it into the document. Not a full Twitter screen. Not anyone else’s. Just yours with the link here.
I opened my phone real quick to take a picture of it and it was gone. I did not click on anything, I was just reading. I tried to “undo” it to see if the little Twitter box would come back and it won’t.
And now, as I type this, a song on my iPod has repeated for the umpteenth time today, “Jesus You Have Carried Me” by Jeremy Camp.
I am beside myself in awe.
I’m sure this all means a whole lot more to me than it does you, but I’m amazed at how God works. It is just unbelievable.
Michelle this is an incredible story! I got goosebumps and am so grateful you chose to share it.
I’ve read your comment a few times and each time I’m more amazed than the first… thank you!
Thanks for the great comments and for letting me know I’m not alone in this struggle. By the kind words you’ve chosen to share… I’m another step closer to accepting and understanding His love for me!
I’m convinced that the cornerstone of most dysfunctional human behavior is not knowing how to accept the fact … Jesus really loves us.
It is definitely life-changing, and it’s so true. All we can do is accept it. So sad that this is a powerful truth that many miss. Great post, Bridget.
Its a known fact that God is Love, but do not forget His hatred for those who hates His ordinances.
Heb 12:26 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”
That no amount of prayer can save them.
Lam 3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
Even those once enlightened and fall away.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.