Contributor Evan Curry shares about God’s love…
When my daughter was born, I recall feeling an overwhelming sense of love for her. I loved her just because. She couldn’t offer me anything. She was a helpless child and needed me for provision.
Now my daughter is five years old and her crying is not as cute as it once was. She has perfected throwing a tantrum and can fall prey to an obstinate attitude. It’s hard. It takes a little more effort to show her love but I still love her just because. She’s my daughter. She still doesn’t offer me much but I still love her…I just do.
I’ve recently been struck by the idea of “one-way love” (popular in the writings of Paul Zahl). As followers of Jesus, we are called to love people even if they can’t give anything in return. It’s hard. It takes more effort. Inevitably, the question comes: how are we doing with showing people love, one-way love, even if they don’t deserve or they can’t give it back to us?
And then I’m reminded of Paul’s encouragement in Romans 5:8,
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Did you catch that? While we were still sinners! While we were dead in our trespasses. While we were marred, ugly, undeserving…Christ died for us. Christ shows one-way love to us. We couldn’t offer him anything, yet God sent his Son to die for us…just because.
I don’t know where you are today. But I want to offer you this encouragement: God loves you just because. Of course, you don’t deserve it, but God gives it. May we offer one-way love to others, too. But regardless if we are “up to snuff,” God offers one-way love to us–the ugly mess that we often are.
Remember today: God loves you just because.