God loves you.
“I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.”
-Walt Whitman
This past Sunday, I had one of those moments that cannot be defined with words. My wife, child, and I arrived to church a little early, and so we had a few minutes to spare before the service began. I looked down at my smiling, laughing child and felt complete peace. Nothing quite fills your heart with joy like sharing moments of deeper meaning with your child. I looked up and around at the church with its people filtering in to find their seats, and it was as if an invisible blanket spread its warmth over all of us. In that moment, I felt the slightest sense of the enormity, interconnectedness, and eternity of God in all things. It was a wonderful moment to behold, more felt and experienced than thought and understood. You realize you could never fully understand this moment, at least not in your earthly life. Still, the greatest mysteries of faith and love don’t need explanation, and so you bask in the tranquil peace of God all around you. Fortunately, just as I was having this moment, the triune God, or Holy Trinity, was the subject of church, and what better example of the beautiful mystery of God than the concept of three in one, one in three. The priest eloquently covered the subject so beautifully I could not even begin to try to summarize. Rather, I will focus on the conclusion: God loves you.
It’s as simple as that. God loves you.
While that eleven-letter sentence is brief, it is profound. Each monosyllabic word could be explored for an entire lifetime without exhausting its subject. Combined, they form the foundation from which to withstand all of life’s storms and also spread life’s greatest joys. Despite its abundance, love is the most fundamental desire of every human being (whether they know it or not): one we spend our lives seeking, craving, finding until we ultimately arrive at its source. This moment, this slightest acknowledgement of the immensity of that single sentence, “God loves you,” is almost beyond bearing. It’s as if your heart is so full with the overwhelming presence of God all around you that it is impossible to show Him and all His creation the full amount of love and appreciation in your heart because we are finite creatures limited by space and time. And yet, this realization does not bring sorrow, but more joy with the recognition that it’s all okay. God is beyond measure. He can overcome our constraints, and He can elevate us to a place of higher understanding and love. Not only can He, He has. He has given what He cherished most, His only begotten Son, so that YOU … not everyone, not the people that deserve it, not the smartest, not the prettiest, not the richest, not the kindest, not the most faithful … you … just you would be able to spend eternity in His love. All of this because of that simple truth: “God loves you.”
I’m writing this because I want to share this moment, this love that God has blessed us with. I hope you take a minute out of your day to contemplate this moment I’ve described (woefully inadequately, I’m afraid), and consider the wonder of the simple fact that “God loves you.”
“To end then, brothers, we wish you joy; try to grow perfect; encourage one another; have a common mind and live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with the holy kiss. All God’s holy people send you their greetings. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
-2 Corinthians 13:11-13
