‟Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are!” (1 John 3:1, Holman Christian Standard Bible, 2009).
Words on the pages of the Bible have often enveloped me in God’s love. I can take you to the places where this has happened.
At the kitchen table in rented seminary housing in Wilmore, Kentucky, I read my Bible after the children left for school. After finishing chapters one and two of the first epistle of John, I silently read the first verse of chapter three. There I saw God’s declaration to me: I am God’s child and He loves me. God’s great gift to me is His love.
I had known a good father’s love, had grown up with two parents who showered love on their four children. However, this affirmation from the Word proved to be different. My heavenly Father spoke directly and lovingly to me, His child. With His written truth, God wrapped me in His eternal expression of love. His unconditional love required only acceptance. From that moment on I could not, nor did I want to, reject God’s embrace of amazing love. From then on I was ‟being rooted and firmly established in love” (Ephesians 3:17).
Years later, with all four children on their own, we lived in Terre Haute, Indiana, where my husband, Bill, pastored a church. One morning I sat in an armless rocker by my desk in the bedroom. Cradling my Bible, I read aloud the 43rd chapter of Isaiah. Historically, it’s about the restoration of Israel, but the prophet’s words took on personal meaning for me. ‟I have called you by your name; you are Mine” (v. 1). ‟Because you are precious in My sight and honored, and I love you . . . . Do not fear, for I am with you” (vv. 4, 5).
What fear? The fear may have been about finding my place in our new church and community. However, my best memory of that morning remains as a sense of both longing and satisfaction, of being held in God’s arms, as if He rocked me, expressing His love.
In Terre Haute, I volunteered at the local Crisis Pregnancy Center. One evening while driving home, I asked God, ‟Why me?” I did not inquire because of any personal disappointment or wrongdoing toward me. Instead, I thought about the counseling sessions I’d encountered that day, the clients who spoke of their bad choices, difficult and life-changing. I asked God why I had it so good.
Why did my life story include good upbringing, a faithful husband, four safe pregnancies, and rewarding work? I could only conclude with one answer. God’s grace, His unmerited favor, His unconditional love for me. God delights in His people and ‟takes pleasure” in our way (Psalm 37:23). Imagine that! It’s truly unexplainable, for He is sovereign. Like Job, ‟I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:3).
In 2010 I extracted a similar explanation for God’s display of personal favor. For 24 days my husband was in the hospital with Legionnaire’s Disease, a strain of pneumonia that is often fatal. But he pulled through. During that time, two women from our church, a mother and her grown daughter, were in that same hospital, and both died with cancer.
Again, I had no answer except the mysterious grace of God, for we did not deserve His favor. His choices are sovereign, and His grace is sufficient—for us and for that other family. Watching Bill in the ICU, God’s word brought a sweet sense of His love and peace. ‟Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8).
Prayer Target: Believe in God’s unconditional love, for He is faithful to His word.
