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Jesus Likes YouBy Chantell Smith I know this may sound a little absurd since we’re used to the conventional “Jesus loves you.” It may even seem to reduce the profoundness of God’s love for us to something trivial. But I just had a thought this week that really encouraged me. I realized that not only does the Lord love us, He likes us. We’ve heard sermon after sermon and read Sunday School lesson after Sunday School lesson about the profundity of God’s love. How His love is unconditional and unchanging, and how is it is the greatest, highest form of love we as humans could ever experience. That agape love. Our relationship with Jesus is often an analogy of a child’s relationship with his father, or a wife’s relationship with her husband. But in these earthly analogies of love and even in some sense the whole idea of agape love, there is a slight overtone of this love stemming from duty, from obligation. The father is obligated to “love” his child because he fathered him. The husband is obligated to “love” his wife because he has taken a holy vow to do so. It would seem, then, that the love God has toward us is somewhat obligatory because He created mankind. But “like” breaks away from the “obligation, duty” connotation that “love” sometimes carries. It infers a predisposition, a delight, a feeling that is motivated purely by desire. And that’s what God feels toward us. He likes us. He wants us to do well, to be happy, to realize our dreams. He wants all things good for us. God has worked big miracles in my life. But it’s in the little things He does that remind me how much He likes me. Have you ever wanted something so trivial and so small that it wouldn’t have made a difference if you didn’t get it, but would make you feel good if you did? Perhaps you had a craving for some brownies on the way to work only to see that a co-worker brought a whole pan to share. You wanted that new MP3 player, but couldn’t afford it, then found just the one you were looking for at a dramatically reduced price. Maybe you were rushing to class without an assignment done and arrived to find that class was canceled for the day-nothing earth shattering or life altering, just little, mundane, ordinary details of life. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). He simply wants things to go well for us. He loves us without a doubt, but He likes us, too.
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Chantell Smith --------- Chantell Smith is currently a junior at the University of Alabama. She is frequently inundated by the turbulent tide of college life, but she is still able to resurface and take in a few breaths of air every once in a while before going back under. |
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