I recently went to the college group at my church. Our pastor spoke on God’s love for us.
We all know that there are many of us out there that have never felt loved…they have never seen or felt what it is like to be loved. As our pastor spoke about this, it got me to think…I grew up and lived my whole life in a family environment where I was loved and I knew I was loved and I felt I was loved…I don’t have a clue what it feels like to not be loved…or to be told I was unimportant, a mistake, unworthy,…unloved…I have never felt loveless.
I could just picture a little girl sitting in her room on her bed clutching her only comfort in her arms…a teddy bear her older brother gave her just before he left. She could still remember his last words to her “every time you need a hug and I’m not around to give you one, squeeze this teddy bear tight and remember how much I love you.” The only person who ever loved her…left her. I could imagine her parents being alcoholics or drug addicts. Drowning their seemingly pitiful lives with their addictions. Drowning out their lives around them. While in their drunkenness, telling their own daughter, who is just a little girl, that she was a mistake. That they never have, and never will love her. All she wants is her big brother back…but he never comes to save her…causing her to become angry, hard, and calloused towards the only person who had ever shown her love.
I could never imagine going through that. The feeling of being unloved is unfathomable to me.
But just the thought of that makes my heart break for the many who live that life everyday.
Our pastor continued to tell us that even though there are many who have never felt the love of Christ, the love of a man who gave his life for us, there are also many of us who have felt the love of our savior. So hearing about Christ’s love was nothing new to us. He kept going by saying that the fact that Christ loves us is only the very surface of the depth of his love for us.
Something we often don’t realize is that God’s love for us causes him to unconditionally pursue us.
He used the example of the life of Hosea. God told Hosea (in the first few chapters of the book of Hosea) to take a prostitute as his wife, and to love her and to cherish her. We wonder why God told him to do this but he did it anyways. He took a woman named Gomer, a prostitute, as his wife. But, she continued to live the life of a prostitute and left him to be with other men. Again, God told him to go find her, bring her home, and love her. And he did.
His point was, that this is an example of Gods love for us. That no matter how many times we leave God. No matter how many times we walk away from him, he will still pursue us. Because he loves us that much. We could do the worst things we could think of, and God will still be standing there with his arms open wide waiting for us to come home. He loves us that much.
I just want you all to think about, how, many of us have experienced God’s love. If you haven’t I want to urge you to experience it now and ask Jesus into your heart. He wants to know you so personally it’s unreal. But, for those of us who have experienced God’s love, I want you to think about how no matter what you do, God will ultimately always pursue you. He will always be standing with his arms stretched out wide, ready to welcome you back.
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