Lavished by Susan Shull

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.” I John 3:1

I stand amazed when I consider the love of my Heavenly Father! To think that he “lavishes” his love on me! It makes me feel all warm and cuddly and I want more of it. The scriptures are full of verses about the love our Savior has for us. The concordance in my Bible has 8 columns! of tiny print listing verses that contain some form of the word “love”. These verses are metaphorical hugs from the Creator of the universe to us.

Evidence of God’s love for us is all around. He created the beauty of this earth, the animals, birds, flowers, plants, and music for us-a perfect world. Then man messed up by rejecting God. That rejection resulted in death and decay in the world.

Thank goodness God didn’t stop showing his love there. His plan for us continued throughout history. The Old Testament prophets proclaimed that a Savior would be born-Moses, 1500 years before Christ; David-1000 years before; Isaiah-700 years before; Malachi-400 years before Christ. Isn’t it comforting to know that God, the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God, is in charge?

When that promised Messiah came as a sweet, tiny, baby boy, God had given us his best and most perfect gift. Our Savior loved us so much he came to the fallen earth and lived an ordinary life that ended in an extraordinary way. He experienced everything we do: the unconditional love of his parents, childhood, the teen years, friendship, pain rejection, temptation, suffering, death, but praise God, he did it without sin, gave His life to cover ours, and rose from the dead.

His ways are so far above mine! His love is indescribable. I think He knew we wouldn’t be able to come up with words to express our wonder and marvel at His greatness, so he gave us the Psalms, including this one smack dab in the middle of the Bible.

“Praise the Lord, all you nations, extol him all you peoples, for great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 117