God’s Extravagant Love

 

By Andrea Merrell

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him 

should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16 NKJV

 

The Sunday school lesson was about God’s love and the excuses we tend to make not to receive it. The teacher said to the class of second graders, “Finish this sentence. God can’t love me because …”

Hands went up, and answers filled the room:

• “I’m not good like my brother.”
• “Mom says I’m a tattletale.”
• “I don’t pay attention in big church.”
• “I took something that didn’t belong to me.”
• “I have bad thoughts sometimes.”
• “Dad saw me kick the dog.”

The answers kept coming until the teacher stood and walked to the blackboard. “Well done, class. Now let’s list all the reasons God can love us.”

The room remained silent as the teacher waited. Then she turned and wrote one simple statement on the board: For God so loved the world that He gave …

As adults, don’t we have our own reasons why God can’t possibly love us? Thankfully, He doesn’t measure His love for us by our failures and mistakes. He doesn’t withhold it when we mess up or punish us for our lack of perfection. We punish ourselves.

We just celebrated Easter, reminding us that Jesus paid the ultimate price to demonstrate His love for all mankind. For me. For you. And nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate or come between us and that extravagant love ... no matter what.

God so loved the world that He gave ... and His love just keeps on giving.

(Photo courtesy of Canva.)

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God's not looking for perfection, and nothing can come between us and His extravagant love. via @AndreaMerrell (Click to tweet.)

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