GOD’S LOVE

One day a single friend asked a father of four, “Why do you love your kids?” The father thought for a minute, but the only answer he could come up with was “Because they’re mine.”

The children had no need to do anything to prove themselves to this father. He took them just as they were. So it is with God’s love for us. He loves us as we are, and it is his love that motivates us to trust and obey him in return.580

The love of God is like the Amazon River flowing down to water one daisy.581

I asked Jesus how much he loved me. He stretched out his arms and said, “This much”—and died.582

A father was tucking in his six-year-old son for the night. The father asked him, “Son, when does Daddy love you the most? When you’ve been fighting with your sister and getting into a lot of trouble? Or when you’ve been real helpful to Mommy and real nice to everyone?”

The son thought for a moment and then said, “Both times!”

“Right,” the father said, “and do you know why?”

“Cause I’m your special guy,” replied the boy. For that was his daddy’s pet name for him, “Daddy’s Special Guy.” The boy knew his father loved him, no matter what, because he was “Daddy’s Special Guy.”

God loves us the same way. He loves us unconditionally because we are his “special guys.”583

On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him” (C. S. Lewis).584