You Are the Beloved

God's love for you isn't something you earn or preserve — it flows from who He is.

Why does God love me? The minute I begin to answer that question, I go to the place of no return — because the minute I answer it with "God loves me because," I am now in the world of earning. I am now required to do, to perform, in order to keep and preserve God's love for me.

The truth of the matter, which is almost beyond our comprehension, is simply that God loves me because God is love. God cannot do anything but love. His blessing and His discipline are the workings out of His love. His presence and His absence are expressions of His love, though we are unlikely to understand it at the moment.

Henry Nouwen expressed beautifully — and I might add, very scripturally — the fullness of God's heart toward us in his book Life of the Beloved.

Nouwen writes,

"I have called you by name from the very beginning. You are mine, and I am yours. You are my beloved. On you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in my mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hand and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for a child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own, and I know you as my own. You belong to me. Wherever you are, I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one." (Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, pages 30–31)

Oh, that we would come to know the unfathomable love of God for us — not because of anything we have done, but simply because He is love and He created us from that love. May you and I today walk in God's love.