It is also good to remind ourselves that God loves you and me. That sounds like a cliche, I know, but often the simplest truths are the most profound. God loves you. He cares for you more than you can ever imagine or understand.
Back in the 1960s, Burt Bacharach composed and made popular a song which declares: "What the world needs now is love, sweet love; it's the only thing that there's just too little of."
Then, in the 70s, Minnie Ripperton popularized another lovesong which said: "Loving you is easy 'cause you're beautiful."
Both songs suggest to us modern people's thinking about love: it's sorely needed, but it's superficial, based on performance if not physical attraction. How profoundly different God's love is! God's love is unconditional and unselfish.
Paul, a first-century Christian, wrote: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man. . . . But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8).
My friend Lawrence loves dogs. His favourite pet is a Dalmatian whose name is Susie. One day, Susie, left all alone in the house, discovered a plate full of prunes on the kitchen table. Because of curiosity or perhaps appetite, the dog ate all the prunes. When Lawrence came back that evening, he had to clean up a very messy kitchen floor. He put the Dalmatian outside on the porch, but, around midnight, a wretching noise came from the direction of the porch. In his pyjamas, Lawrence quickly hosed down the porch, gently bathed the dog and lovingly wrapped her in a clean blanket.
Often in our lives, because of our stupidity, greed or appetites, we end up creating a big mess. God stoops down and cleans up the mess in our lives and wraps us in the blanket of His love.
God's love for you and me does not depend on our performance; we cannot do enough to merit or deserve His love. God's love is unconditional and unselfish. Regardless of our past, our social background, or our present economic situation, God sees each one of us as having worth or value.
When Jesus talked to a woman beside a well in Samaria, His followers were astonished. Jewish men did not talk to women in public, especially to Samaritan women (as Jews did not have anything to do with Samaritans). More than that, this was an immoral woman--she had had five husbands and now had a live-in boyfriend. But Jesus broke through centuries of racial, gender, social, religious and cultural barriers and talked to the Samaritan woman. That is how God's love behaves towards you and me. You and I are loved by God, regardless of our past.
At first, the Samaritan woman thought that Jesus was the one in need. Then she realized that it was she who needed what He was offering. She could offer Him water from a stagnant well, but He was offering her living water. He was physically thirsty, while she was thirsty spiritually.
Are you feeling thirsty? Believe in Jesus, and you will know this God of love. He loves you with a love that is unconditional nad unselfish.
Richard Navarro is an insurance salesman and finanical planner in Langley, B.C.