A little girl was hugging her dolls and crying. Her mother knelt beside her and asked, “Honey, why are you crying?” The little girl sobbed her reply, “Mommy, I keep loving these dolls, and loving these dolls, and they just never love me back!”
It brings tears to our Father’s eyes that He has paid the highest price possible to demonstrate that He loves us, yet we often don’t love Him back. However, He hasn’t made this a criterion for our salvation. God decided before the foundations of the earth to love us.
The Passover in Egypt was an early demonstration of God’s decisive love. One night, the death angel was to pass through the land, taking the firstborn of every household. But God told Moses to warn the Jewish people to be prepared. They were to take the blood of a lamb and spread it over the doorposts. This would be the sign for the angel to pass over their households.
God had set a standard. It wasn’t the behavior or the deservedness of the person in the household whose life was in question. The standard was the blood on the doorpost. Similarly, when God looks at us, He sees only the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3: 16).
You have two choices with a love like this. You can abuse it and take it for granted. Or you can respond to it. Today, you might find yourself staring at those two choices, wondering if responding to the love of God will offer anything in return. My parting thought to you is this: “What does ignoring the love of God have to offer you?”
