Pause
The love of God has always caught people off-guard.
When we expect micromanagement,
God loves us expansively.
When we expect to be ranked and rated,
God loves us impartially.
When we expect to be found guilty,
God loves us unconditionally.
When we expect to be excluded,
God loves us with arms wide open,
ready to draw us in.
Listen
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
John 3:16
Think
God worked through Moses to save the wandering Israelites. God healed them by the sign of a serpent lifted high above them, an image that reminded them of God’s life-giving power. In the cross of Christ, God again lifts high a sign for us — a reminder of life-giving power. But this time, it is even more.
It is a reminder of God’s love.
God’s love is so great it could not be confined to one city or one country or one continent — it simply had to be for the world. It is a love so great it could not be satisfied with one human lifetime — it simply had to be forever. It is a love so great it could not be shown by a statue on a stick — it had to be brought down to us by God’s own Son, God’s own Self.
It is a love so great that gazing up at it isn’t enough — we simply must believe.
Nikki Finkelstein-Blair
Pray
God, your love is so far beyond what I can imagine. Thank you for inviting me to believe, even when I can’t understand how your life-giving love can be for everyone, forever, through your Son. Amen.
Go
When we let God surprise us
with expansive,
impartial,
unconditional,
all-embracing love,
we cannot help but carry that love
to our world.
Let our message catch people off-guard:
that God loves them beyond belief,
and so do we.
