This is a Temporary Title.

Today I was sitting in the car, and I was thinking about life and people and God and all. And for some reason this quote was brought to the surface of my mind. “God doesn’t just love you. He actually likes you.” I don’t quite remember where I heard or where I read this, but I recall how I used to love swishing that concept back and forth in my mind. Something about this concept of “like” was very appealing to me in high school. But today I realized how contradictory it was to my previous post about like and love.

I previously defined “like” as the valuing of a person because of a person’s qualities and “love” as the valuing of a person regardless of a person’s qualities. If these definitions stand, then biblically, God doesn’t like us. But oh how he loves us. And when I came home today, while I was reading the Psalms, it hit home even more. This is how God loves us.

Psalm 103:8-13
“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.”

He is merciful, gracious, loving, forgiving. He removes our transgressions from us. He is like a father showing compassion to his children. Why? Ready for this? This is the contrast.

Psalm 103:14-16
“For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.”

Why does a father love a child? Because the child ate his vegetables? Because the child did his math homework? No. The father loves the child because the father is a loving father. Why does God love us? Because we pray and read the Bible? Because we get good grades? Because we stay pure before marriage? No. We are dust. We are like grass. We are temporary. We are insignificant. God loves us because God is love.

God does not value us because of our qualities, for we have no admirable qualities. God values us because of his own qualities. He values us because he himself is loving, gracious, merciful, forgiving.

That blows my mind.

- Larry