A God of Love

Yesterday we reflected on God’s unconditional love and grace. I continue that theme today.

Thomas Merton says, “Nothing can change God’s love for me, since my very existence is the sign that God loves me and the presence of his love creates and sustains me…”

Some people have a hard time accepting that. They have a hard time feeling chosen, or accepted or loved. Because so much of what the world tells us is that you have to be the best, the brightest, the best looking, have the most money, or you have to get it all right, or you have to play by a certain set of rules, in order to be loved, and accepted.  

I think about how a number of years ago now, at the request of a friend, I went to go visit a young man who had been arrested on drug charges and was brought into a juvenile detention center. He had so much anger in him, and he was clearly hurting… As we sat down to talk, he said, “I can’t do anything right. I’m failing school. I’m a failure at work. My dad says I’m an embarrassment. I don’t even belong in my own family. And I thought how does a young man, just 16 years old, pile up that kind of shame and guilt?

I don’t think he’s alone in that.

Somewhere along the line, people miss the message: they are sacred. And they are loved; that they are accepted by God… no matter what…

Sometimes we get a skewed idea of who God is, that God is an angry god, a tyrant god, or god who keeps score… But in Jesus, we are given a very different picture. God is a God of love.

Let us pray: God of grace, we thank you for your unconditional love. Help us to accept this love and share it with a world desperately in need. Amen.