Being Loved
I once had a dream that I saw God. I was at the top of the stairs, and I saw Him. So I ran down as fast I could and jumped into His arms. I was trying to get as close to Him as possible. I felt an abundance of joy swell up in me during the encounter and even after awakening.
In James 1:17, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Just like what the verse says, God’s gifts are perfect, and He loves to shower us with these perfect gifts because He loves us. It is like a parent who loves to give to their children because of their love for them. I believe that the dream was a gift that God gave me to show me how much God loved me and how much I mean to Him.
The story of the prodigal son shows us an example of God’s love. In the story, we see a relationship between a father and a son. The son took his inheritance and squandered it away in another country. He eventually lost everything and had to work with the pigs. The son ended up going back home; when he came to his senses, he realized that his father’s servants have it better than him. So he traveled back home, and when the son was in hindsight of his father, the father had compassion and ran to him and kissed him. It can be found in Luke 15:11-32. So back in that time, in the Jewish culture, when a middle-aged man runs, it’s a disgrace to the family because your legs cannot be seen in those times. However, in the parable, the father did not care; he was just excited that his son was home. That is how our Father is to us. He will run to us with His arms open wide. He will meet us where we are.
Throughout the four gospels, we see that Jesus is a people person, a person who loves to talk and meet with other people. He meets people that no one else wanted to talk to, like the prostitutes, the lepers, the blind, and so forth. He met them because He loved them. He loved the people who were broken—the people who didn't have it all together. In one out of the two genealogies we have of Jesus, the one found in Matthew 1:5, we see the name Rehab. Rehab was a prostitute in the book of Joshua, who helped the spies escape from the city of Jericho. Even in Christ’s own bloodline, we have someone who wasn’t perfect, and it’s not just Rehab; we many people in the lineage of Jesus that wasn’t perfect. God loves the people who other people dismiss.
God meets us right where we are. We don't have to have everything all together for Him. We just have to be willing to open our hearts up to Him and listen and obey what He has to say. When we open our hearts to Him, He fills in all the cracks that our past left us with. He fills it in with His grace and mercy, just like a potter that fixes the cracks of a vase. God wants to make you whole again.
God loves you. He loves the flaws that you have and wants only the best for your life. So look to him when you don’t feel the love from the people around you. He has you in the palm of His hands.