more or less... God's love is the same...
My sweet Annabeth, another month of your life has come and gone and I'm running a little behind on my monthly mother wisdom. I've written a post to you each month of your life since you've arrived, and I have hardly scratched the surface of things I want to share with you. One year is certainly not enough, so I've decided that I'll keep this up for as long as I can because I'm positive we'll never run out of topics.
This is an interesting time. I'm sure that every person who has ever lived has believed that their time was the most interesting, and we're probably all right in believing that. I don't watch the news on a regular basis, but I try to keep up with what's happening in the world so I'm not totally out of the loop. You have to be careful here. Ignorance is bliss, but it's beneficial to know a thing or two when it comes to the current events. Knowing too much, on the other hand, can fill you with fear and depression. And so each morning I turn on the news and I think, "I wonder what tragic thing has happened today."
Last Sunday morning a man walked into a church and began shooting innocent people. This is a regular headline. People taking the lives of people, that is. And it hit close to home because it happened close to home. It could have happened at any church. It could have happened in any city. It could have happened to anybody. I read a few testimonies of survivors, and one struck me particularly hard. I don't want to go into detail here, but I thought about me and I thought about you and I thought about what it must have been like to be in that situation. To be in a place where your life is threatened and you are helpless. To be a mother whose attempts to protect her child might fail. I thought about how terrifying and scary that would be. And then I thought about the fact that while some had lived their last day on this earth, we would wake up tomorrow and life would pick back up and time would move on.
Your dad and I teach a Sunday school class for college students at our church and the last few weeks we've talked about money. We all need it, we all have it, and some have more than others. The thing about life is that while you are given free will and able to make many decisions that will influence the course you're on, you aren't able to choose where you are born or into the family you are born. This one is chosen for you. And so some people are born into families that have a lot of money while others are born into poverty. Some are born into warfare while others are born into freedom. Some are born into families that are healthy while others are born into families that are broken. And, to be honest, it can be easy for us to think that if life goes one way for us that might mean that God loves us more.
You see, we might think that if God gives us more days on this earth, more money, more opportunities, more friends, more connections, more earthly privileges, more health, more children, more power, or more influence then we must have done something that would cause him to love us more. To love us more than the one whose days are cut short, who never had the opportunity, who wasn't well known, the sick, poor, barren, powerless, and overlooked. But what a danger when we start to think such things are proof of God's love. This couldn't be further from the truth. Because the Bible tells us that God does not show partiality. That His love for us is equal. That it's not in His character to choose favorites. I realize how hard this can be to wrap our minds around because I struggle with this, too. But I want you to know, Annabeth, that you can never do anything to cause God to love you more or less. And life's circumstances are not proof of God's love for you, no matter how good or how difficult they are.
It was at a time in my life when I felt most unloved that I realized the depth of God's love for me. A time when all of the "more" was stripped away and I could only see less. But it's in our less that we see more of God. In the words of John the Baptist, when we are less, He is greater. And as God continues to teach me and challenge me, I am coming to understand the peace that comes from knowing God's love is. It is. It never ends, it never stops, it never fails. Even when we do, His love doesn't. In the less, in the more, in the hardship, in the abundance, God's love is constant. It doesn't increase, and it doesn't decrease. It has nothing to do with us but everything to do with Him. We can't earn it and we won't lose it. Some days we may feel it more than others, but truth reminds us that it is always there. We can't escape it. We can't hide from it. And when we can't see it, we can ask God to open our eyes so that it's clear, that it's felt and known. From my experience, there's never been a moment where God hasn't been more than faithful to answer such a request. After all, that is who God is. Love.
This is an interesting time. I'm sure that every person who has ever lived has believed that their time was the most interesting, and we're probably all right in believing that. I don't watch the news on a regular basis, but I try to keep up with what's happening in the world so I'm not totally out of the loop. You have to be careful here. Ignorance is bliss, but it's beneficial to know a thing or two when it comes to the current events. Knowing too much, on the other hand, can fill you with fear and depression. And so each morning I turn on the news and I think, "I wonder what tragic thing has happened today."
Last Sunday morning a man walked into a church and began shooting innocent people. This is a regular headline. People taking the lives of people, that is. And it hit close to home because it happened close to home. It could have happened at any church. It could have happened in any city. It could have happened to anybody. I read a few testimonies of survivors, and one struck me particularly hard. I don't want to go into detail here, but I thought about me and I thought about you and I thought about what it must have been like to be in that situation. To be in a place where your life is threatened and you are helpless. To be a mother whose attempts to protect her child might fail. I thought about how terrifying and scary that would be. And then I thought about the fact that while some had lived their last day on this earth, we would wake up tomorrow and life would pick back up and time would move on.
Your dad and I teach a Sunday school class for college students at our church and the last few weeks we've talked about money. We all need it, we all have it, and some have more than others. The thing about life is that while you are given free will and able to make many decisions that will influence the course you're on, you aren't able to choose where you are born or into the family you are born. This one is chosen for you. And so some people are born into families that have a lot of money while others are born into poverty. Some are born into warfare while others are born into freedom. Some are born into families that are healthy while others are born into families that are broken. And, to be honest, it can be easy for us to think that if life goes one way for us that might mean that God loves us more.
You see, we might think that if God gives us more days on this earth, more money, more opportunities, more friends, more connections, more earthly privileges, more health, more children, more power, or more influence then we must have done something that would cause him to love us more. To love us more than the one whose days are cut short, who never had the opportunity, who wasn't well known, the sick, poor, barren, powerless, and overlooked. But what a danger when we start to think such things are proof of God's love. This couldn't be further from the truth. Because the Bible tells us that God does not show partiality. That His love for us is equal. That it's not in His character to choose favorites. I realize how hard this can be to wrap our minds around because I struggle with this, too. But I want you to know, Annabeth, that you can never do anything to cause God to love you more or less. And life's circumstances are not proof of God's love for you, no matter how good or how difficult they are.
It was at a time in my life when I felt most unloved that I realized the depth of God's love for me. A time when all of the "more" was stripped away and I could only see less. But it's in our less that we see more of God. In the words of John the Baptist, when we are less, He is greater. And as God continues to teach me and challenge me, I am coming to understand the peace that comes from knowing God's love is. It is. It never ends, it never stops, it never fails. Even when we do, His love doesn't. In the less, in the more, in the hardship, in the abundance, God's love is constant. It doesn't increase, and it doesn't decrease. It has nothing to do with us but everything to do with Him. We can't earn it and we won't lose it. Some days we may feel it more than others, but truth reminds us that it is always there. We can't escape it. We can't hide from it. And when we can't see it, we can ask God to open our eyes so that it's clear, that it's felt and known. From my experience, there's never been a moment where God hasn't been more than faithful to answer such a request. After all, that is who God is. Love.
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