Twice His

Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Inspired by and taken in part from an article written by Ron Hutchcraft; it is a subject matter too good not to pass on.

There are people who have felt like they've been unwanted most of their life. And in this often cruel world we live in, people really do make you feel like you don't belong, that you're never good enough, that they don't particularly care if you're there or not. Honestly, if we put our sense of worth in the hands of other humans, they are almost surely going to drop it, crush it or stomp on it. On purpose or unknowingly; either way, it feels crummy.

Then along comes Someone who says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." That's our word today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 31:3; someone who never lies; someone who always delivers. There really is Someone who has always wanted you so much that He's pursued you at great cost. All the way to a rugged old cross where He gave His life so He wouldn't lose you.

Actually, the problem isn't that God doesn't want us. It's that we don't want Him. Oh, we're okay with a God who runs the universe as long as we can run our own universe. We want God as a belief, a religious pacifier, a cozy blanket when it's cold, and a spiritual ace to play when we die, but not when it comes to God actually running our lives.

So we've cut ourselves off from the One who loves us more than anyone. All our God-ignoring sins have set us up for an eternity without Him, because sin separates us from a sinless God.

But Jesus was God who came looking for us. In His words, he came to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). He suffered for our sinning so we would never have to; so we could be with Him for all eternity. That's how very wanted we are by the most important person in the galaxies.

There's a story of a little boy who built a toy sailboat with his daddy. His father let little Scotty glue it and sand it and paint it and name it. He called it "Arthur," for some reason. And Scotty couldn't wait to get his masterpiece in the lake nearby. But on "Arthur's" maiden voyage, a storm came up and quickly blew the sailboat way beyond the little boy's ability to get it. Scotty ran to his daddy heartbroken. His father just said, "I'll just buy you another one." Scotty was adamant. He said, "I want my boat back."

Later, in an amazing discovery at a little store downtown, Scotty saw his boat in the window! He ran into the store and asked the man if he could have it. "Sure," the owner said. "Twenty bucks." That probably sounded like a million dollars to a little boy, but he went back home and went to his neighbors, asked for any job he could get paid for, and one day he walked into that store proudly and he plunked down his hard-earned 20 bucks.

He ran all the way home with that sailboat wrapped tightly in his arms. His father was home, so Scotty jumped into his lap with one arm around Daddy and one arm around "Arthur." And he gushed out what his heart couldn't contain: "Daddy, I love this boat so much, because now it's twice mine; once because I made it and once because I paid for it!"

That's how Jesus feels about us. He loves us so much because we're twice His; once because He made us, and once because He paid for us with His life. And today He stands with open arms waiting to welcome us into His love, into a forever relationship with Him.

Jesus, no one's ever loved me like You do. I am Yours!