God SO Loved

    When our bodies are hurt we can go to the doctor and sometimes he can help us. If the pain is not of a physical nature we are tempted to leave it unattended, but this kind of pain is just as real and maybe even more hindering. Still we might keep trying to cover it up and keep on going. But, when we are alone and still, it talks to us. It might even shout to us. Some go into the depths of depression, some just get busier so they won't have to listen to it shouting.

    Love demonstrated by another person can go a long way in easing the pain. It can even be healing, for love is what we are needing. But the love of people is limited. No one person can fully meet our needs and be there for us every moment of every day. I have found the answer for this kind of healing. Don't tell me, "You couldn't possibly understand." Yes, I do.

    I have been there. I knew ABOUT God. I had attended church regularly. But when the pain was screaming at me I began to search. And don't tell me not to talk to you about religion, that you have tried that route and it doesn't work. Yes, I know it doesn't. When I cried out to God in my pain I said to Him, "I'm fed up with religion but, if YOU are out there anywhere, the one I read about in the Bible, who is forgiving and loving and non-judging, then I want to know You." He heard me and He healed me.

    John 3:16 says: "For God SO loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." 1 John 4:10-11 states: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God SO loved us, we also ought to love one another." Verse 8 of the same chapter says that "God IS love."

    He loves you SO much that He allowed His Son to go through all He went through just so He could have a personal relationship with you. He is so holy and we are so unholy that this was the only way He could have us back. This love our souls so crave and need is found in its perfect form in only one place - in God. It never fails. It is constant, it is complete, and it is unconditional. And when we establish and begin to build this relationship with this God of Love, we find the deepest needs of our soul are met, and complete healing and wholeness begin to flow into the wounds and crevices left by lovelessness, and disappointment, and sorrow. And then, after we begin the relationship, we don't neglect it. If we do, the weeds will grow back. No. We maintain it and develop it and nurture it just as we do other relationships that we value.

    A popular song writer of the 70s wrote a song that contained the line, "And when my love poor life is running dry, you come and pour yourself on me…"* That's what Jesus did for you and only His love can make you whole.

Copyright Daphne Harrington 2000

*from the song If, by David Gates and Bread