🌌 Agape
”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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17).
I feel like this verse is one of those Bible verses that we see very often. It can be easy to overlook, because of how often we see it, but as with the small flowers on the side of the road, there is great treasure in discovering the hidden joys in the things we see every day. It just takes a little…slowing down. Maybe that’s what God is asking of you today. To slow down, and let him speak to you.
Today’s reflection delves into the topic of God’s love. It’s easy to imagine God as a benevolent Being who loves the world in this general sense, in the “I love everybody” sort of way. But it’s not like that. God’s love is directed, very personally, at each one of us. Father Mike Schmidt (again, our goat, powerfully used by the Lord), explained it like this:
“Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that you didn’t have to exist? No offense- But you and I aren’t an essential part of Creation. So yeah, God loves you. But you didn’t even have to be. So there is only one reason why you exist, and that is because God—from all eternity—looked out on the universe and declared, I do not want a universe without you in it.”
The first time I heard that line, I teared up. I’m still tearing up a bit while listening to Father Mike speaking about it again. It’s like if we were stars, God doesn’t love the sky full of them, He loves each star like it were the only one to exist in the universe. If we were grains of sand on the beach, God doesn’t just love the beach, He loves each and every grain of sand and “calls each by name” (Isaiah 43:1). I have called you by name, you are mine. Isn’t that- it’s unfathomable. How small, how insignificant, are the grandest gestures of human love, compared to…this?
The flow of writing has stopped for a good 5 minutes or so. I’m still trying to digest this magnanimity of sheer…love…that we have from Him, who cared enough to want to get close to us, to feel what we feel, to hurt like we hurt, to go through the whole range of the human experience—just because He loves us. I cannot wrap my mind around it. But divine things were never meant to be understood, I guess. Maybe I will leave this with you for now, till you…not understand, but come to terms with it. Until then, I’ll see you in the next log <33
P.S. Search up what the title of this log means. Hint: it’s Greek. And also an adjective that perfectly describes what one feels seeing the scope of divine love.