Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.  I John 3:1

As I look back over my life I think of one of the most amazing things – Anna Ruth loves me.  For almost 70 years!  To be honest, I am not loveable.  I am aware of that, today more than ever.  Yet she not only says she loves me but proves it every day by her actions.

How does this love business work? To begin with, it is not because we are so amazingly loveable. If that would be the case, who would ever love me?  Love, even human love, defies all descriptions. It depends entirely on the desire of someone to love another, no matter what.

It is that insight into love that causes me to bow in everlasting thanksgiving to Jesus Christ who loves me, all of me, all the time, with all his divine love. Imagine a love so strong that it looks on a weak, struggling human being as an actual “son of God.”   That is what I read here.  I am that recipient of transforming love, a love that I fail to fully understand but which I embrace and value more than anything in life.  I am thankful to be a son of Paul and Trella Jacobs.  That is joy enough. But to even begin to understand how I could be pulled into God’s love as his son – that is just too hard to even begin to grasp.  I am overwhelmed by this love.

John goes so far as to remind us that the love of God that draws us to Christ, to give our lives to him every day, is a confusing thought to those who do not know him.  The moment a person, a sinner, turns to Jesus for salvation, the truth of his love actually lives!  Those of us who are sons and daughters of God by the power of his love, and all that means, must realize that those who have not given their hearts to the Lord cannot understand, for a minute, what gladdens our hearts.  How could they possibly understand?  We know because we feel and know the love of God.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16, NIV This is the joy of believers!

With whom does thou delight to dwell?

Sinners, a vile and thankless race;

O God, what tongue aright can tell

How vast thy love, how great thy grace!

From a Wesley hymn.