Thank you, O my Father!
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1a)
When was the last time you stopped and thought about your status as a child of your parents? If we think about that honestly, each of us probably shudders at the way we took (take) for granted, took advantage of and abused the love of our parents. Such a question asking us to ponder the parental love we’ve been shown is not only an opportunity for some serious reflection, but also an opportunity for some rather humble confession.
As humbling as such an earthly parental reflection is, it is even more humbling when we ponder the love of our heavenly Father and how we have abused and taken for granted his overwhelming love. What makes the love of God, our heavenly Father, so amazing is that we don’t deserve it at all and instead he blesses us so lavishly that we have so much more than we need and often can use.
Having humbly repented of our abuse and misuse of the love of our heavenly Father, let’s take a look at the lavish love of God, our heavenly Father.
It begins with the very last phrase God led John to write in our verse for this week: “that we should be called children of God.” That phrase likely takes us to our baptism where for many of us, at a very young age, God claimed us as his child and rescued us from the clutches and condemnation of the devil. Being God’s child means first and foremost that instead of facing an eternity in hell, you can look forward to an eternity in your father’s perfect mansion in heaven.
That alone would make it worth so much being a child of God. But there is so much more – forgiveness of each and every sin and the knowledge and assurance that Father God walks with you every step of the way even when you can’t see or understand it.
Then you add on top of all of that the bounteous physical blessings which your heavenly Father gives to you. We all know how often and how loudly we grumble and complain about the physical things which we don’t have or how someone else has more than we do or doesn’t deserve what they have. But, even though this isn’t November or Thanksgiving, step back and just try to take inventory of the rich physical blessings God has given to you. If that inventory is thoroughly and honestly done, it becomes a bit overwhelming. Instead of comparing and looking at what you don’t have in contrast to someone else, look at how much more you have (and likely take for granted) in contrast to 80% of those in the world.
When such a realistic and appreciative view is taken, we simply have to join John in saying: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”