Seldom.
We complain about the weather. We
bicker about our toys. We argue over who gets which continent and who has the
best gender. Not a second passes when someone, somewhere doesn’t use your name to
curse a hammered thumb or a bad call by the umpire. (As if it were your fault.)
You fill the world with food, but
we blame you for hunger. You keep the earth from tilting and the Arctic’s from
thawing, but we accuse you of unconcern. You give blue skies, and we demand
rain. You give rain, and we demand sun. As if we knew what was best, anyway.
We give more applause to a brawny
ball-carrier than we do the God who made us. We sing more songs to the moon
than to the Christ who saved us. We are a gnat on the tail of one elephant in
the galaxy of Africa’s and yet we demand that you find us a parking place when
we ask. And if you don’t give us what we want, we say you don’t exist. As if
our opinion matters.
We pollute the world you loan us.
We mistreat the bodies you gave us. We ignore the Word you sent us. And we
killed the Son you became. We are spoiled babies who take and kick and pout and
blaspheme.
You have every reason to abandon
us.
I sure would! I would wash my
hands of the whole mess and start over on Mars. But do you?
I see the answer in the rising of
the sun. I hear the answer in the crashing of the waves. I feel the answer in
the skin of a child.
Father, your love never ceases.
Never. Though we spurn you, ignore you, disobey you, you will not change. Our
evil cannot diminish your love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does
not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it. You don’t love me less
if I fail. You don’t love me more if I succeed.
Your love never ceases.
How do we explain it?
The answer is found in the eyes of
the mother. Why does she love her newborn? Because the baby is hers? Even more.
Because the baby is her. Her blood. Her flesh. Her sinew and spine. Her hope.
Her legacy. It bothers her not that the baby gives nothing. She knows a newborn
is helpless, weak. She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.
And God knows we didn’t either.
We are his idea. We are his. His
face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are him. Look deeply into the face of
every human being on earth and you will see his likeness. Though some appear to
be distant relatives, they are not. God has no cousins, only children.
We are, incredibly, the body of
Christ. And though we may not act like our Father, there is no greater truth
than this: We are his. Unalterably. He loves us. Undyingly. There is nothing
that can separate us from the love of Christ. (Rom. 8:38, 39)
Had God not said those words, I
would be a fool to write them. But since he did, I’m a fool not to believe
them. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But how difficult to
embrace this truth.
You think you’ve committed an act
which places you outside his love. A treason. A betrayal. An aborted promise.
You think, he would love you more if you hadn’t done it, right? You think he would
love you more if you did more, right? You think if you were better, his love
would be deeper, right?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
His love is not human. His love is
not normal. His love sees your sin and loves you still. Does he approve of your
error? No. Do you need to repent? Yes. But do you repent for his sake or yours?
Yours. His ego needs no apology. His love needs no bolstering.
And he could not love you more
than he does right now.
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