It’s quite a mystery why the holiest being of all would love broken people.
And yet, we must believe in His love in order to know that we are saved.
I’ve been pondering this question for quite some time, especially as I’ve been reflecting on God’s holiness–and how it contrasts my innate brokenness.
While that might seem a bit despairing, I’ve actually found so much hope through this process. It’s reminded me that God is so merciful and compassionate to offer us a lifetime of chances to draw near to Him out of His endless love for us.
Though we can’t have a definitive answer to “why would God love me?” while on earth, God gives us clues in the Bible to help us better understand Him.
God is given many titles throughout the Bible. Two of them have helped me understand His love a little more.
God is our father
See what great 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 (NIV)
God is a perfect father, unlike any human father or man we’ve interacted with.
And a perfect father loves His children simply because they belong to Him.
He feeds them, clothes them, and comforts them when they fall. He instructs them, provides them with wisdom, and sends them out into the world when they are fully grown. He loves them from the moment they are born, even when they cannot love him back.
This is the kind of father that God is.
If you have children, you might understand this even more deeply. When your child is an infant, they can’t produce anything for society or provide you material gain. The biggest gift they can offer is a simple smile or cute gesture. Yet you lose sleep over them. You make sacrifices to care for them.
Why?
Because you love them in unexplainable ways. And you would do anything for their good–even when it takes personal sacrifice.
Jesus is God’s Son, first and foremost. The only perfect child of God. And yet God sacrificed Him for our sins, so that we can all be called children of God and dwell with Him forever.
That takes love to a whole other level, doesn’t it?
God is an artist
Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.Isaiah 64:8 (NIV)
Have you ever spoken with an author about her book? Or a painter about his masterpiece?
I bet their eyes lit up as they spoke. They knew their work with a surreal kind of intimacy. Perhaps they even spoke about their characters as if they were real people.
(Which, as a novelist, I can deeply sympathize with…)
The best is spending time with a kid who has recently finished an artwork. It doesn’t matter if it looks like a bunch of scribble lines–this is their masterpiece. It must be properly applauded before being hung in a place of honor.
When we’ve poured our heart and soul into a project, it becomes a special part of us. We no longer see it with the eyes of the world–we’re too blinded by love.
God is the master artist. Each morning and evening, He paints the sky with brilliant colors. He designed each animal in their unique way. He designed the very systems that allow us to live.
We were made by God’s own hands. He breathed the breath of life into humanity, as His final and most sacred creation.
God gives us worth because He loves us and we bear His image.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
Regardless of why God loves us, we should be filled with gratitude.
It makes no logical sense for a perfect God to love broken people, and yet He does.
This is why we can have hope. The future is in God’s hands. Our lives are in His hands. He loves us, so He will always be drawing us closer to Him.
The question is, will you accept the calling into His love?
