The Maker of the Universe loves you so much that He calls you His sons and His daughters.
Let that sink in. The Creator of heaven and earth who made the stars, molded the mountains and filled the ocean – is absolutely crazy about you.
That has always been a very hard concept for me to grasp. I have always wrestled with understanding the depths of God’s love. How could He really love a sinner like me? How could He not give up on me when although He has given me so much, I never seem content? How could He not stop loving me when I continue to let Him down day after day?
Perhaps I find it hard to believe because we live in such a conditional world where you are often only accepted based upon what you do, what you have and what you accomplish. I often don’t feel like I do much, don’t have much and most days with 3 kids at home I hardly accomplish anything. But yet, He loves me.
God knew I would struggle with this concept of His love my whole life, perhaps that’s one reason He chose for me to be an adoptive parent. As I have gone through the adoption of my three children – I have seen the parallels between earthly adoptions and our heavenly one. And it has helped me glimpse just a little bit more of God’s love in many ways.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Because He loves us that much.
I thought a lot about this verse when my husband and I received a call from our adoption agency wanting to know if we would be interested in adopting a little baby girl who had some medical issues. We said we would pray about this baby girl and they emailed us her medical records. When we began printing her medical records, the printer just kept going and going. At 10 weeks old, this precious child had a longer medical history than most adults. No prenatal care, born premature, in utero addiction to drug, 2 heart defects which led to 2 open heart surgeries, a chest tube, had already been resuscitated, over 20 medications administered around the clock, had been in 3 different hospitals, was on oxygen, had a feeding tube, already involved in 4 regular therapies – the list seemed endless. The situation seemed overwhelming. The prognosis was uncertain. My husband and I prayed and it seemed my prayers began to change from – can we do this? To how can we do this? To why wouldn’t we do this? To Lord, help us do this.
Because ultimately I was reminded of Jesus on the cross and His adoption of me. He willingly hung on that cross and died for me, a sinner, and He already had a print out of my history. He KNEW I would sin against Him, repeatedly. He KNEW I would turn my back on Him more than once. He KNEW I would be hard to love (ask my husband, I am!). He KNEW I would put things and people and my desires before Him. And yet, He died for me anyway. Although my list of sins was almost endless. My situation seemed overwhelming. And my prognosis was uncertain. He adopted me despite having the foreknowledge that I would be a tough case. Because He loves me that much.
All of us blessed with the gift of being parents are amazed when that tiny being is placed in our arms for the first time at the amount of crazy, over the top, jaw dropping love you feel at that moment for such a helpless little life. You feel like your heart is going to explode. And that you never realized something could exist for which you would sacrifice your very life to protect, care for and nurture. But even that amount of love pales in comparison to the amount of love your heavenly Father has for you and for me. It says in Ephesians 3:19 that God’s love for us surpasses knowledge.
So, no matter how inadequate you feel, how much you have messed up, how far you have fallen, how un-lovable you think you are – the Creator of the heavens and earth calls you His child and He adores you. For Paul writes in Romans 8:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”
Because He loves us that much.
