“In the beginning . . .” Uh-hunh. You knew the rest of it. Even if you’re not real religious, you could finish that sentence. Okay, there might be a couple of exceptions. Keep up. Let’s try another one.
“God so loved the world that . . .” Whoomp! There it is! John 3:16.
Nothing you could ever think, say or do can ever make Jesus not love you. Yeah, I know. Some of you have tried. Sometimes you blundered into messing up. We all do. This isn’t that.
You can decide to reject Jesus and His stunning love for you. God built this whole thing with you as the determining factor.
Life isn’t a matter of chance, friend. It’s a matter of choice. Yours. Blaming God for your troubles isn’t an option. We’ve all tried that one, too.
So, yeah. You can choose to stiff-arm Jesus and His no-holds-barred love. He’s a gentleman who loves you so much He’ll quietly back away and let you go—but it will never lessen His love for you.
Guess what else? Nobody’s more persistent than he; He’ll be back, stepping up on the porch of your heart, politely knocking and asking if you’d like to walk with Him. Reject Jesus 893 times, and He’ll be back.
You need to understand about Jesus: He’s not much on quitting. He will not let go and walk away until you’ve made it clear you don’t want Him and He knows you mean it. Even then, you’ll only damage your own destiny. You won’t touch His love for you.
Seriously. No matter what your final decision regarding Heaven is, you’ll never experience being loved like this anywhere else, with anyone else. It’s a fact.
Check this out: “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” [Romans 8:38]. That’s not ever going away. No matter where you go or with whom, Jesus will go right on loving you.
I know you’ve heard it: “NObody loves me!” Maybe you’ve been wounded to the point you’ve gotten bitter and said it yourself. “I’m an unloveable mess!”
Nope. Not true. Jesus does. Nothing you could ever think, say or do, nothing that’s happened to you, can ever make Jesus not love you.
Trust me, lonely soul. You’ve never been loved like this! You’ll never know another love like this one!
© D. Dean Boone, May 2017
CoffeeArt paintings by Karen Eland.