Wedding
season is upon us! Flowers, dresses, guest lists, food,
decorations . . . so many details . . . so much stress . . . such a busy time!
Finally
the day arrives. All the jobs are done. Everything is ready. The
guests fill the church, awaiting the arrival of the wedding party.
The groom and his attendants arrive on the scene. He’s looking
pretty serious. Terrified may actually be the word! The music
changes. Everyone stands, all anticipating the bride’s arrival,
trying to catch a glimpse of the bride & her beautiful dress.
Here’s
where I go off script a bit. At this point of the wedding, I watch
the groom. Even though he may have looked terrified up until this
point, you can usually tell by his face the moment that he spots his
bride. Few grooms can hide the delight of seeing their bride from
shining on their faces.
At
that moment, I don’t think any of the details of the wedding really
matter to him. He is just delighted to see his bride . . . to have her in
his presence. It’s not the work that she has done. It’s not what
she has accomplished to make the day happen. It’s that she is there . . . with him . . . his bride.
Zephaniah
3:17 says “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He
will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he
will rejoice over you with singing.”
God
will take great delight in you . . . delight! He rejoices over you!
Just
as the groom does not love his bride because of the awesome job she
did putting the wedding together, God doesn’t love us because of
what we accomplish for him. He just loves us . . . always . . .
relentlessly . . .
God
doesn’t require anything from us for him to love us. He created us
to have relationship with him. He loved us before we were born. He
loves us whether or not we love him. He loves us whether we serve him
or turn our backs on him.
Maybe
because as humans, our love can grow for someone, getting deeper and
stronger as we get to know them more completely, we easily think of
God’s love in those terms. God’s love for us is not like that
though. It neither increases or decreases. He has always known us
completely and loved us completely.
This
means that we can rest in His love. We don’t have to earn it – in
fact, we cannot earn it. God’s love does not diminish when we fail.
God’s love does not increase with our achieving. It is not about
our performance. It is not about our accomplishments. It is simply
there . . . more amazing than we can understand.
“And
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power
together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and
deep is the love of Christ” (Eph.3:17b,18)
Ruth
No comments:
Post a Comment