“There is nothing that will make me love you less, and there is nothing that will make me love you more. Because God has loved me to the fullest extent, nothing I could do will earn His love nor lessen His love to me, and that’s how I see my relationship with you.”
This past Saturday, IFI hosted a volunteer training day and I was fortunate to meet some of the volunteers. I happened to meet a volunteer who is a stay-home mom that has two teenage children. Out of curiosity, I started to ask her “how do you communicate ‘I love you’ to your children?” She thought a moment, and answered by saying: “I tried to let my children know that I love them just for who they are, not for what they do.” She continued: “Here is something I always say to my children. There is nothing that will make me love you less, and there is nothing that will make me love you more. Because God has loved me to the fullest extent, nothing I could do will earn His love nor lessen His love to me, and that’s how I see my relationship with you.”
I found her way of seeing God’s relationship with her inspiring, and how she mirrored it to her relationship with her children full of wisdom. How I wish I could be told by someone that “I love you unconditionally, not for what you did, but just for who you are” when I was younger!
After that conversation, I meditated on the concept of “love” again. I started to wonder more questions about our humane love and God’s love. Our humane love could be fragile, self-interested, and conditional. But God’s love is perfect, just, and unconditional. Have you ever had a time that you desire for love in return by what you do? Have you had a time, when you were afraid of letting people down by what you did, but they say: “I still love you”? I ‘ve had both. For years, I believed that I could earn people’s love by what I do. I assumed that if I meet my parents’ expectation of being excellent in school, they would love me more by showing more affection to me. I studied hard at school to purse good grades. I celebrated every triumph of academic excellence, which at the same time, brought me more fear of losing love by my potential failures in the future.
However, God, the one who loves me perfectly casts out my fear of losing love. When I lift up my eyes on the cross, which Jesus has died for me, I realized nothing I could do is enough to change His love for me. Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished”, as if He is telling each individual, who lives across time and space, that “My love for you now amounts to full.” How amazing is God’s love towards us? This love of salvation, is powerful enough to erase all the lies, curses, misfortune and hopelessness that have chained me for long. I AM SET FREE in Christ.