Love Came Seeking

Last year our organization hosted a fancy dinner to honor my boss.  Among the invited were the boss’ personal friends. When the time came, one of his friends who had flown in from out-of-country took to the stage and honored my boss in a most moving speech that saw all the women in the room swoon. We clutched at our chests and balanced tears as we said our “aaaws” and “isn’t that so sweet”. When the speech was done, I had to fight, and I mean really fight the urge to start that slow clap you see in the movies that eventually leads to a standing ovation, high fives and hugs. Not surprisingly, the friend got a rousing applause and in looking around, I noticed that a few of the ladies had lost the battle with the balancing act and now sat dabbing free-flowing tears from their cheeks.

Shortly after, it was my boss’ turn to speak. I personally waited with bated breath to see what his response would be. I imagined he would be thrilled and thankful and he would in turn say lovely things about his friend. But when he opened his mouth, I nearly fell off my seat in shock. This is the first thing he said: “that was unnecessary”. I was flabbergasted! I wondered if him and I had been in the same room. Here is this man who cleared his schedule, paid his way to Toronto, endured stormy weather and ridiculous flight delays for the purposes of delivering this obviously very well thought out moving speech and the recipient’s response was “that was unnecessary”???

Have you ever done something nice for someone that they perhaps deemed extravagant and their response to you was something along the lines of ‘I can’t accept it- it’s too much’ or they said ‘you shouldn’t have’? Or perhaps you were the reluctant recipient? I once had to tell off a friend after she said something similar to me. I said to her: “I know the gift probably costs a bit; but by the time I decided to give it to you, I had already calculated all the costs and had determined that the cost paled in comparison to the value I place on you as my dear friend. It’s your special day and I wanted to do something special for you”. When we respond to gifts and overtures of love with ‘you shouldn’t have’ or ‘that’s unnecessary’, while we think we are being ‘humble’, in actuality we are hurting those who are extending their love to us. It’s like a slap in the face. No one gives a gift without calculating the cost; and although it can be perceived as extravagant, you can be sure that the giver has considered all the factors and has determined that your relationship is more  valuable to them than the money it costs to give you that gift/experience  (assuming that the giver’s motives are pure).

It is bad when we respond this way to friends; but it is even more unfortunate and detrimental when we take this same attitude with God. We know that God loves us – because His Word says so, and He has proven it to us. But we say to Him or to ourselves “God, You cannot possibly love me. You don’t know where I’ve been. You don’t know what I have done. I am beyond help. I am not worthy of your love. No one has ever really loved me – I am unlovable.”

This past Sunday at church, we sang a song and the lyrics of the first verse and chorus were as follows: “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry. From the waters lifted me, now safe am I. Love lifted me! (x2) When nothing else could help, Love lifted me!” The words of that song hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to stop and reflect on God’s love. Love is not something God does; it is who He is. God IS love.

Furthermore, as the lyrics of another song reminds us, God didn’t wait for us to draw near to Him, but rather He clothed Himself with frail humanity, came down to earth and came searching for us. He did not wait for us to cry out to Him; but He lets us hear His voice calling us.

In this hateful, divisive world we live in, there are many people who are looking for true love – but they are looking in all the wrong places. There are others who believe that love must be earned, or that love can be withdrawn in an instant; and so they struggle with the concept  of God’s unmerited, unconditional love – and as such they reject it because they don’t understand it; they don’t trust it; it doesn’t make sense to them.

But it’s true! God does indeed love you; unconditionally. But even more profound, His Love comes seeking. Matthew 18 narrates the parable of a man who leaves his 99 sheep in search for the one that is lost. It goes on to say ‘In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish’.  John 3:16-17 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only beloved Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

To the one that would say to me “you don’t know what I’ve done or where I’ve been”…. may I say this to you? As we saw in the story of the prodigal son, God doesn’t care how we got into the mess we did: whether it was brewed in a cauldron of our own doing/rebellion, or whether it came from circumstances outside of our control. God extends His love and His hand of salvation and forgiveness to all of us without discrimination – despite the severity of our mistakes and missteps.

Romans 8:38-39 tells us: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When God extends a hand of salvation/restoration/love to us, let us not “humbly” say to Him ‘I don’t deserve it – I cannot accept it’. God has already calculated the steep cost of His unconditional, unmerited love for us; the cost of being in relationship with us. That cost was the sacrifice of His one and only beloved Son Jesus. And it pleased Him to offer His Son’s sinless life for our sinful one in order to make us righteous. [Isaiah 53 is like a receipt; a tab that details the hefty price that was paid]. God weighed the sacrificial cost against the value of having us share an eternity with Him and He deemed it worthwhile. Ours is to simply accept His love; we don’t have to earn it.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8). If you want to respond to God’s outstretched arm of love, I invite you to check out the “prayer and resources” page on my blog. There is a simple, yet powerful, prayer of response. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

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