Love

Love

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

RECENTLY MY CHILDREN AND I were having family devotionals as a start to our day. Once we’d read the passage of Scripture, I shared with them a story of a person of color who was killed in our country for no other apparent reason than the color of his skin. We talked about the travesty of the situation, how a history tainted by racism and privilege has brought us to the place we are today. And in response, my kids felt passion for justice to be served against the people who had harmed this man.

We then began to speak of God’s heart and love for all people. How God weeps with those who weep and how sad these kinds of crimes must make him. We talked about the men who had committed this heinous crime and how they had since been arrested and would await trial, as they justifiably should.

I then looked at my children and whispered, “But what about these men who killed another? Does God love them, too? Are they worthy of his love?”

My children stared at me blankly for a moment, taken aback by my question. They hesitated to answer, struggling to think that God’s love reached these men too. And there is a part of me that cringes as well. Because although in theory it’s easy to dismissively say that God loves everyone, when faced with a hard situation, the validity of that statement rolls less easily off our tongues.

Love does not mean that people should not be held responsible for their actions. They should be. We can always advocate for justice. But the fact that God’s love is available to everyone is still true. He died for us while we were sinners. While we committed crimes. While we were steeped in our own evil ways. That’s the great love of God for us—all of us.

Lord, thank you for your great love. Help us to see that it is available to those who we think deserve it and even those we do not. Amen.

-Kendra

One Good Step: Who is someone you find difficult to love? Spend time today praying for that person.