I’m a DIY home project guy. Not because I really enjoy it, but because my labor is always the right price… FREE! Over the years I’ve noticed a pattern has developed in my DIY projects. It starts with extreme confidence that I know what I’m doing and this project will go smoothly. This confidence is quickly shoved aside by the realization that I have no idea what I’m doing, when I encounter something I didn’t think about 5 minutes into the project. After a few hours on Youtube, I eventually find a way to overcome the obstacle and proceed to complete the project.
The entire time I’m working on the project my goal is perfection… no mistakes… For some reason I expect my skills to rival that of an experienced and licensed carpenter. Even though perfection is my goal, it never plays out that way. My projects are never perfect, and when they are done no matter how good the results are all I can see are the mistakes.
This reminds me a little of God’s relationship with humanity, except with one huge caveat. God created man and it was good (Genesis 1:26-31). God created a world in the garden that was perfect. However, Adam and Eve’s decisions were not perfect. They chose to disobey God’s instructions and do what they were told not to, thus bringing sin into the world. Because of that decision, despite our best efforts, despite our intentions, despite our goal being to honor God, we will come up short… Much like my home projects…
Here is where the caveat comes in. While all I can see is the mistakes I’ve made God sees past our faults and failures to a child of His whom he loves. Our sins and flaws, our shortcomings and insecurities, do not change God’s love for us.
Somewhere along the line in my time as a Youth Pastor I encountered this saying “God could never love you more than He loved you the moment you were created.” In our earthly concept of Love this statement makes no sense. In our understanding of love, love can grow, it can fade, it can change and in some cases it can even be removed.
Our love is conditional. God’s Love is Perfect
God’s love for us is not lacking in intensity, it has no gaps, it’s not conditional on our performance. God’s love for us remains steady, constant and complete. You may have heard a song that came out recently by Rachael Lampa and Toby Mac called “Perfectly Loved”. It talks about all the lies we believe about love and ourselves and how “there’s never been a moment that you were not perfectly loved.”
1 Corinthians 13:7 says “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
God’s love for you is with you in the midst of all circumstances, it never gives up on you and it endures through all our sins and failures.
All of this came packaged in a baby… The gift of Christ is the evidence of God’s “Never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.”1 God’s love for us and our salvation are not anything we can earn (Ephesians 2:8-9) instead it is a gift from God. Before we ever did anything honoring in God’s eyes He loved us (Romans 5:8)
This gift of a baby in a manger is evidence of God’s love because it marks the beginning of his plan of salvation.
My prayer this christmas is that we would all rest in and embrace the words of Ephesians 3:14-20
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
This Christmas…
- May Christ dwell in our hearts
- May we have the strength to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ
- May we embrace the love that surpasses knowledge. Even when it doesn’t make sense to us, may we would embrace the truth that He loves us.
- May we believe that God can do far more than we can ask or think
Adam Deering
- The Jesus Storybook Bible