Misdirections: The Compelling Beauty of Grace

Lately I have come to understand the relationship between myself and my Father in more detail through the simple analogy of love. Though the love we understand may be complex in many ways, as some of you may have experienced in previous relationships, the Love of the Father is so beautifully simple and even more incredible. We, as humans, often consider the love we know on this earth to be wrought with nearly as much pain as joy. This is due to our imperfect and sinful disposition, which can never seem to be fully satisfied short of a supernatural interference. I think that this is one important detail that may explain why it is so difficult for us to understand the full beauty of the Love of Christ.

Because we so often feel the need to prove ourselves to other humans, we feel the same urge to attempt to prove ourselves to the One who sculpted every edge of the universe and knit our flesh together. We believe that we can make ourselves look better or have a better chance at salvation if we are to show God how ‘good’ we really are. We give money to the poor, we attend church every Sunday (and even go to a small group or two), we sing songs that other people have written to a God we feel is distant, in a church where the people are just as distant as He is. The thing is, no matter how hard we may try to alter His perception of us, He is going to love us just the same (Eph. 2:8-9; Gal. 2:19-21). 

This is the beauty of my Father.

It is our nature to try to squeeze every ounce of satisfaction or pleasure out of the material and earthly things we have on this planet in order to experience more happiness. We have twisted and manipulated love into a dirty, unsatisfying, and adulterated perception of what it means to truly be loved. We try to force love into a situation by becoming intimate with a person we don’t really know; by boasting of our accomplishments in hopes that we may be listened to; or by spending every last bit of cash we have on possessions that will last but a moment. The truth is, we don’t really know what true Love is anymore. The bit of love that we still know has been drenched in superficial ideologies, trampled by our sinful desires, and suffocated by our yearning to be known.

But the Love of my Father is not of this earth. It is a full, utterly satisfying, radically life-changing, and joyous feeling. It is crucial for us to know what our Creator thinks of us when He looks at each of us. When He looks at you, and when He looks at me, He feels delight. He feels the overwhelming pride in being a Father. Our minds will never be able to grasp even a fraction of His Love for us because it is so great. And because He loves us with such incredible intensity, there is nothing that we can do to either increase or decrease His love for us. To take this to a slight extreme, if we were to never sing another worship song; never pray again; or ever read a sentence of the Word again, He would still love us the same. There is nothing we can do to earn His Love for us, and there is nothing we can do to prevent Him from loving us. We could be spiritual couch potatoes for the rest of our lives, but He would love us the same.

But this is where our love for Him comes in. Once we truly begin to understand the depth of His love for us; once we begin to love the same things He loves; once we have a desire to pursue what He pursues; and once we begin to feel the same emotions that He feels with the heart that He has, we begin to have a desire to serve Him, regardless of the fact that we are already loved. Once you begin to fall in love with someone, you desire to be like they are. You enjoy the same things they enjoy, and you understand that no matter what you do, you cannot erase their love for you. And it is out of the understanding of their love for you that your desire to illustrate your love for them begins to blossom. You want to serve them, tell them how beautiful they are, and do anything for them – even if it means giving up your own life. The same thing happens with our Savior. When He calls us to give up our own lives to follow Him (Rom. 14:8; 2 Cor. 5:11-15; Eph. 5:1-2), it is only out of our understanding of His love that we can actually rise to the call.

We were created to be relational creatures centered around love, but we frequently misdirect our love toward ourselves and our selfish desires. Let us focus on Him and Him alone, and let our every need and every desire be satisfied by the only One we need.