HOW GOD LOVES

Little Nancy had kept every doll that her family and friends had given her. Over the years, many became tattered and worn. Some even had missing eyes and ears, and a few had lost some or most of their hair.

One day a friend of her mother came for a visit. With pride, Little Nancy invited the guest to visit her bedroom to meet her dolls. All of her dolls had been carefully displayed on her bed. “I love these dolls,” she said to the guest.

Picking up a doll with a button missing from an eye, part of the thread gone from its lips, and a face that had become worn from being held so tightly for so many years, with a charming smile she said, “I love this one the most!”

“Why?” asked the friend.

“Well,” she replied thoughtfully, “if I didn’t, probably nobody would.”

How like our Heavenly Father. When we read John 3:16, we are confronted with a love that has no boundaries, no barriers, no exceptions, no requirements, no standards, and no preconditions. When God proclaimed whosoever, He included everyone.

Often when we see those who are marred by sin and scarred by self-destructive behaviors or catch a glimpse of those individuals who are dirty and grimy and homeless, we look away in disrespect and disgust. Not Jesus. He sees in everyone – including us – a life worthy of His love.

Prayer:  Help us, Father, to see those for whom You lived and died as You do. May we realize the price You paid for our salvation and do what we can to win them to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture For Today:  For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16