I am still having trouble absorbing the fact that God loves us as much as He loves His Son.
But that is what He said!
May they be brought to compete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. (John 17:23)
So I am re-reading John 17 today.
There are many pictures of God's love in Scripture. The Cross is the greatest picture of God's love for us. But there are many more.
I think of the story of the prodigal son. He wasted all the wealth his father gave him, ended up with nothing, but in desperation returned home. And, we all know the story, was welcomed back into the family.
The story has been told for generations for wayward children, as we all are.
And think of the hymns...here's just one...
I've wandered far away from God
Now I'm coming home
The paths of sin too
Long I've trod.
Lord, I'm coming home.
Coming home, Coming home
Never more to roam
Open wide those arms of love
Lord, I'm coming home!
Prodigal as we use the word means wasteful and reckless. It refers to people who squander all they have with no thought of anyone else, nor even of the consequences for themselves!
That is the negative meaning of the word. But prodigal can also mean
lavish, bountiful, unsparing, extravagant. That's the kind of love the father had! So we could also call this parable the Story of the Prodigal Father!
He never exhausted his supply of love. His household, and probably most his neighbors, thought he was excessive and extravagant, even recklessly wasteful of his love. Throwing it away. Of course, none of that matters it you have an unlimited supply!
In John 13 Jesus tells His disciples to love one another. By this shall all men know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35. It was a "mandate" and that is why we call Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday.
Christ taught us to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds. And then to love our neighbors as ourselves. Those were the two greatest commandments.
It's all so profoundly simple. God loves His Son totally (that word is such an understatement, but I don't think there is a word to say what we need to say about God's love) and He loves us the same way, to the same extent (I still find it hard to type that phrase...to the same extent...
so I guess I still can't comprehend it.)
That must make God our model. The One we are to copy. He loves His Son in that never-ending, unlimited, always available way. And His Son loves Him the same way. And God loves us the same way, and we are to love Him and each other the same way and then it just circles upward in the celestial realm.
We are to love each other just as God loves His Son....which is the same way God loves us...which is the way we are to love Him....and each other....and His Son.....
It's an ever-widening circle of never-ending love.
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