God's love: The love of a parent

I love my granddaughter so much!

I had the privilege of becoming a grandparent just over two weeks ago and it's great!  Our granddaughter is adorable and very special.  But it has set me musing on why I love her so much.  Yes, she's adorable; yes, she is my son's child but there is something more.  And it's not because of anything she does.

She doesn't know me although she may recognise me as someone familiar.  She doesn't reach out and cuddle me, talk to me or even look at me with any degree of focus or recognition.  Other than the warmth of cuddling her I get nothing out of the relationship, at least, not at the moment.  So why do I love her so much?

I have decided that the reason I love her so much is just because she is. I love her simply because she is here and not because of anything that she does. In a way she is a part of me but I don't think that is the reason why I love her.  It is certainly not for any activity or behaviour on her part; she is too young for that.  Nor is it because I love me so much!  I struggle with loving me.  But I have participated in my granddaughter's creation and here she is, a gift to the family, and we love her simply because she has arrived among us, just because she is.

Our Heavenly Father's love 

This set me thinking about another parent, our Heavenly Father.  If I, my son and my daughter-in-law love this new arrival so much just because she is, could our Heavenly Father love us any less?  Or make his love conditional and expect us to act in a particular way before he loves?  Of course not; it's inconceivable.  God loves us just because we are.  He created us in order to love us.  Yet somehow we often think deep down that we are not lovable enough for God to love us.  We try and act in ways that will make us more lovable, more acceptable to God - and we fail.  We slip up somewhere because we are human, because we are unable to be perfect all the time.

But we don't have to be.  It is enough that we have been created.  Sometimes it is said that God cannot love us any more or any less that he does now.  Nothing that we do and nothing that we fail to do will change how much he loves us.  Our Heavenly Father's love is perfect.  He loves us just as much as he loves Jesus, John 17:23.

I will be in them, and you will be in me. So they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.

He loves us at least as much as any mother loves her own baby, and even more than some, Isaiah 49:15:

But the Lord says,
“Can a woman forget her baby?
    Can she forget the child who came from her body?
Even if she can forget her children,
    I cannot forget you.

As my granddaughter grows older I expect that there will be times when she will act in ways I do not like; she will not always please me.  But I cannot believe that I shall love her any the less as a result.  And so I trust that she will be a constant reminder that God loves me just as much whether I please or displease him.

And as my granddaughter grows older I hope she will grow to love me too, just because I am her grandmother.  And as we both grow older I hope that we shall both grow to love God more, just because he is our Heavenly Father who loves us so much.

Bible passages taken from English Standard Version (ESV)  The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Fishermen through grace

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:18-20

Just like Simon Peter and Andrew we followers of Jesus are to be fishers of men (or "people", the word translated "men" is not gender-specific) too.  Fishing for people means finding others who want to follow Jesus too as we read at the end of Matthew's gospel in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Peter and Andrew, and the other disciples, learnt to people-fish by spending time with Jesus and watching how he did it.  And they saw that what Jesus did was proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom of God, Matthew 4:23:

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

What is the kingdom of God? It is the grace of God impacting on us.  It is the proactive, loving, forgiving, reconciling, recreating power of God breaking through into the darkness of our world in a tangible way, overpowering the forces of darkness through the victory over them accomplished by Jesus through his death and resurrection (Colossians 2:13-15)  It is expressed through the healings and deliverances that Jesus did (Matthew 4:24).  The kingdom of God is the light of his grace shining in the darkness.  

The net with which we fish is the grace of God.  We fish by God's grace, through God's grace and with God's grace.  It is by the grace of God that we have been brought into his kingdom and made partners with him in bringing his kingdom on earth; it is through the grace of God that we have the talents, gifts and abilities we need in order to fish and it is the grace of the gospel that we demonstrate that will draw people to God.

James Ryle describes God's grace like this: "Grace is the empowering presence of God enabling you to be who God created you to be, and to do what God has called you to do – right where you are."  http://www.truthworks.org/grace-gods-unspeakable-gift/


We are able to make disciples - people fish - through the empowering presence of God because the empowering presence of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, is with us always (Matthew 28:19-20).

 
Bible passages taken from English Standard Version (ESV)  The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.