Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Not Any Old Love

When I was a kid, I vacillated between being afraid of God and deeply respectful of him – or sometimes a combination of both. The God of my childhood was a distant God – authoritative, all-knowing, powerful and wise. I was taught to respect him, to pray to him and to ask him for forgiveness when I sinned. We had a formal relationship, God and I. I approached God like I might approach Queen Elizabeth: politely, respectfully, a little fearfully and with awe.

Deep down inside, I knew God loved people, but I thought of his love more generally, a protecting “because I know what’s good for you” kind of love love. I figured God loved the human population, but I never considered the fact that he might love me, personally, as an individual.

Honestly, this idea of a personal God-love might just be beginning to sink in now, five years after my return to faith. I suspect I spent the last five years concentrating on comprehending God’s grace and coming to terms with the fact that I shouldn’t, and couldn’t, try to earn his favor. I might have even kept the thought of his love for me at arm’s length. That idea may have been a little too big for me.

It may still be.

Still, there’s no escaping God’s individual, personal, just-for-me kind of love, is there? If you read the Bible, references to that kind of love are everywhere. And that’s what I thought about when I heard today’s reading, from Romans 5:1-8, and particularly this verse:

“For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” (Romans 5:5).

Notice the word “dearly.” Not simply that God loves us, but that he dearly loves us. Not just that he loves me, but that he dearly loves me. Not simply with kindly benevolence, like a ruler “loves” his people. Not just from afar, with distant affection. But like a parent loves his child, up close, personally and deeply.

I was curious about the use of the descriptor “dearly” in this verse, so I went over to Bible Gateway to read some of the other translations. Out of the ten or so I read [and for the record, I’m glad I use the NIV and not the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, thank you very much], not one used the adverb “dearly.” Ordinarily this would have prompted me to assume there had been some unnecessary editorializing by the translator, but this time, I was okay with it. Quite honestly, that one little word breathes new understanding into the concept of God’s love. “Dearly” makes it feel personal.

So God loves me, maybe even the way I love Noah and Rowan – deeply, forever, with all of my being. And it just may take another five years to wrap my mind around that.

What about you? How do you interpret God's love for you?

And linking up with Jen and the sisters:

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