‘What has made you feel most loved in your life so far?’
I once had the privilege of asking that question of some pupils at a school I was visiting. Some of their answers were just lovely.
‘My mum making me hot chocolate when I can’t sleep at 3am – even though she’s got to get up at 7am.’
‘Dad giving up something important he needed to do when he heard I was going to be around for the weekend.’
‘My boyfriend turning down a really good party just so he can come and see me at the weekend.’
I still remember the room going very quiet when I quoted some of those answers in my talk that evening. But no wonder. After all – we all long to know for sure that someone somewhere really loves us – don’t we?
Which makes these words just wonderful:
‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10)
We may not feel much love for God. But he still loves us very much indeed.
How do we know? Because he’s given his Son to be the ‘sacrifice for our sins’. Because at the cross, Jesus – God’s Son – willingly gave himself to pray the price our failure to love God deserves.
We may sometimes hesitate to describe ourselves as ‘loved’. But God says we really are.
David Horrocks from Christ Church Wokingham, which meets every Sunday at St Crispin’s School at 10.30am, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
