"What is man that You give importance to him, and that You should set your heart on him, and visit him every morning, trying him every moment?" (Job 7:17-18)
How Great Is Our God?
Have you ever seriously thought about what God has done for human kind? How that as God He swapped heavenly royalty for earthly poverty? When He lived among men His bed became, at best, a borrowed pallet --- and usually a hard earth. That He and his companions were dependent on donations for his daily living. He was sometimes hungry He would eat raw grain or pick fruit off a tree. He knew what it meant to have no home. He was ridiculed. His neighbors tried to kill Him. Some called Him a lunatic. His family tried to confine Him to their house. His friends weren’t always faithful to Him.
He was accused of a crime He never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. The jury was rigged. A Roman judge swayed by politics handed down the death penalty even if it was clear that He did not deserve it. They killed Him. With all His power why didn't He prevent those things to happen? Why did He allow it?
Why did He? Because of the gift that only He could give: To save us forever from damnation.
There is no way our little minds can comprehend the love of God. But that didn’t keep Him from coming … From the cradle in Bethlehem to the cross in Jerusalem we’ve pondered the love of the Father. What can you say to that kind of emotion? Upon learning that God would rather die than live without you, how do you react. How can you begin to explain such passion?
When human hands fastened the Jesus Christ's hands to a cross with spikes, it wasn't the soldiers who held the hands steady. It was God who held them steady. It was God who stretched the hand. The hands that created the heavens and the earth. The same hands formed oceans and the mountains. The same hands that designed the dawn and crafted the clouds. Those hands that blueprinted one incredible plan for you and me.
How Important Are We To Him?
Take a deep thought about it. Look back, and think about what happened on mount Calvary. Think about Our Lord Jesus Christ, up on cross where, with holy blood, the hand that placed you on the planet wrote the promise that “God would give up His only son before he’d give up on you.” That's how precious you are as a creation... as a person... as someone He knew before you were even born.
God didn’t look at our problematic and scrupulous lives and say, “I’ll die for you when you deserve it”. No, despite our sin, in the face of man’s rebellion and un-mindful way of living, he chose to adopt us. And for God, there was no going back. His grace is a ‘come-as-you-are’ promise from a one-of-a-kind Lord of the universe.
You’ve been found, called, and adopted. So trust our Father in heaven and claim this verse as your own: “God showed his love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). And you never again have to wonder who your father is --- you’ve been adopted by God and are therefore as “heir of God through Christ”. Now you just have to stand up. Claim it. All we need is to make ourselves worthy --- worth it. And then give back our love to Him in return. Our love is all He asks.
Through the ages, He sees us all. He saw us before we were born. And He loves what He sees. Flooded by emotion. Overcome by pride, the heavenly creator turns to us, one by one, and says, “You are my child. I love you dearly. I’m aware that someday you’ll turn from me and walk away. But I want you to know, I’ve already provided you a way back.”
Call it what it is. Call it grace. Call it love. God loves you.
