One day a couple from the church were out distributing loaves of bread in a low-income housing complex. They came to an apartment where they heard arguing through the door, but they decided to knock anyway. A man opened the door and asked what they wanted. One of the visitors said, "We don't want anything. We just wondered if you know anyone who could use some loaves of bread?"
"Why are you doing that?" the man asked.
"Just to let people know that God loves them."
"What did you just say?" the man asked, rather anxiously.
"We're just handing out loaves of bread to let people know that God loves them."
The man stared and said, "I can't believe this. We just buried our three-week-old son yesterday, and now here you are at our door."
The visitors offered to pray with them, and the couple accepted their offer. As they were leaving, and the door was being closed, they heard the husband say to his wife, "See, honey? I told you God cares. We thought he wasn't paying attention to us, but he sent those people here to make sure we knew."
Over two thousand years ago, the world heard knock at the door. The source? Jesus. Born in a manger...wrapped in strips of cloth... ready to grow and save mankind from its sins. Jesus the Messiah. The world changer. The life bringer.
He’d come to a world who’d thought that God had given up on them... wasn’t paying attention to their needs. Many thought God wasn’t interested anymore...that sin would win out... that the enemy was given a victory by default. They were wrong.
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Jesus came to earth with a message and a mission. More than just a loaf of bread to the hungry. He gave mercy. He extended grace. It was a reminder that God does care... and that He wants to spend eternity with His creation rather than be separated from them.
Jesus came because God loves. With a genuine and deep affection... God loves. You aren’t just a person to Him...you are His child. And He loves you.
Imperfect...hurting...confused...challenged... A genuinely flawed but infinitely valuable child of the King of Kings. That’s you. YOU are the one He loves.
His affection for you isn’t based on anything you’ve done. You haven’t earned it. You don’t deserve it. You can’t make it increase or lessen. It is genuine, heartfelt, and unconditional.
He loves us just as we are... and loves us too much to let us stay that way. He is always working to better us... to help us be more like Him. Sometimes His affection takes the form of discipline...sometimes challenge... sometimes brokenness. But during all of those, He never leaves our side. We matter to Him. Profoundly. And all He asks in return for His affection?
Love Him back...
...and love those He puts in our path with the same level of affection that we receive from Him:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - John 13:34-35
We serve an amazing God... May the love He gives you remind you to pass it along to others. Somebody somewhere is sitting behind a closed door... wondering if God has forgotten about them. Let’s remind them that He hasn’t... ... and that He loves them.
