A friend
described his grandmother as one of the greatest influences in his life.
Throughout his adult years, he has kept her portrait next to his desk to remind
himself of her unconditional love. “I really do believe,” he said, “that she
helped me learn how to love.”
Not
everyone has had a similar taste of human love, but through Christ each of us
can experience being well-loved by God. In 1 John 4, the word love
occurs 27 times, and God’s love through Christ is cited as the source of our
love for God and for others. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (v.10). “We
have known and believed the love that God has for us” (v.16). “We love Him because He first
loved us” (v.19).
God’s love is not a slowly dripping faucet or a well we must dig for ourselves. It is a rushing stream that flows from His heart into ours. Whatever our family background or experiences in life—whether we feel well-loved by others or not—we can know love. We can draw from the Lord’s inexhaustible source to know His loving care for us, and we can pass it on to others. In Christ our Savior, we are well-loved.
