O How He Loves Us
Now, Jesus himself was and is a joyous, creative person. He does not allow us to continue thinking of our Father who fills and overflows space as a morose and miserable monarch, a frustrated and petty parent, or a policeman on the prowl.
One cannot think of God in such ways while confronting Jesus’ declaration, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” One of the most outstanding features of Jesus’ personality was precisely an abundance of joy. This he left as an inheritance to his students, “that their joy might be full” (John 15:11). And they did not say, “Pass the aspirin,” for he was well known to those around him as a happy man. It is deeply illuminating of kingdom living to understand that his steady happiness was not ruled out by his experience of sorrow and even grief.
So we must understand that God does not “love” us without liking us—through gritted teeth—as “Christian” love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it.
The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word love.
—Dallas Willard
The Divine Conspiracy
There is a praise song that speaks of how fully God loves us. One line declares, “All of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me.” God’s love is overwhelming in this way—the more fully we recognize it, the more fully His love eclipses whatever it is we are struggling with in this lifetime. God’s love brings strength for the journey. It is not a fickle love, dependent on our performance or measuring up; it is love based in His nature, “a love of another kind.” Health and wholeness rest in this love. Let us long for it. Let us cling to it. Let us long for and cling to Him. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics