I woke up this morning feeling a love for my children so strongly and so deeply, I felt like I was going to explode. Even though my children are grown up, some married, some with their own children, my love for them still moves me, still captivates me, still makes me smile. It is almost as though my heart can literally burst for them. 

Have they ever disappointed me? Frustrated me? Angered me? Absolutely! Many times over. Have they broken my trust, caused me grief, left me wondering, driven me to my knees? You bet! But, my love has never been based on their performance, or the lack of. My love does not increase or decrease depending on my children’s temperament, like liquid mercury in a thermometer going up and down, depending on the temperature in the atmosphere. I have never loved them LESS, even in spite of the rollercoaster of emotions that I have felt over the years because of them. There have been days I haven’t exactly LIKED them, or been happy with their choices, their attitudes, their actions. There have most assuredly been days they have not liked me, and I’m sure they have felt some very “colorful” emotions towards me. But, love is not an emotion, nor should it be based on emotions. Emotions do not affect my LOVE, but MY LOVE can most certainly affect my emotions. Love can override, and emotions subside. 

My love has not decreased for them over the years. It has neither faded, nor worn out for them. Instead, my love for them has most certainly grown. As I guard that love, as I watch them grow and change, as I get to know them more and more, my love for them has in fact deepened. As they grow and mature, our relationship grows and matures and rises to a new level. We relate differently. They need me differently. They too have fallen “in love” with their spouses and with their own children, and so their love for me has been divided in a way, but my love for them is not built on their love towards me. It is not hinging on whether they appreciate me, or show me love in return. I just love them. I love them for who they are, how they are, and some days, in spite of how they act. But, as much as I love them, there is still room for more, and my love for them is not perfect. 

Not everyone has experienced this kind of parental love, nor does every parent love to this extent. Some people have no idea what love is supposed to look like, feel like, be like. They may feel unloved, and unable to love. This is human love. As much as I’d like to say that my love is unconditional, strong, and so magnificent, my love is still bound and extremely limited. There is still so much left untapped, undiscovered, with room to grow.  As deeply as I feel my love for my children, as moved as I am, as great as that love is, this is only a mere glimpse of a love that far outweighs our own. The love of a Heavenly Father. My love for my own children is but a tiny grain of sand in comparison to the magnificent love that God has for us! His love for us, His children, is constant, truly unconditional, unchanging, and unending. His love is sacrificial, powerful, faithful, and healing. This love from god is life-changing, chain-breaking, freedom-bringing, unrelenting love! He loves His kids. Each one, everyone. He created each person out of love and longs for each one to know His love and to love Him. We are all loved by Him, but not all people will choose His love. For those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God and accept Him as their Savior, He adopts into His family and call His own. I love this truth written in Romans 8:15-16 (The Passion Translation), ’But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as He rises up within us, our spirits join Him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as He whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!”’

How wonderful to be loved with unlimited, relentless, pure, enfolding love. Not based on what I look like, where I was born, how I perform. Not determined by how others see me, or even how I view myself. Not subject to my talents or skills, my flaws or faults, nor my strengths or weaknesses. How comforting it is that I am not hanging in suspense of whether God loves me or not, but am rest assured that His love for me is abounding and amazing, passionate and perfect. His love is not weak, but powerful. Not withheld, but poured out, lavished, demonstrated and proven, and nothing can separate me from it. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

And if that weren’t already enough, His love explodes in its beauty, as it fuels us, fills us and equips us to love others as He has loved us. The love that I feel for my children, my spouse, my family and friends, for the stranger, and even for my enemies, actually comes not from myself at all. That tank would have run dry a long time ago. But because God has first loved me, I can love others. Because He loves me, I can actually love myself. Because He continually pours His abundant love into me and over me, it now runs through me, assuredly as blood runs through my veins. I am loved. I can love. Just as I love my children, and those who have become like my very own, God loves me as His own. Oh to be a child of God. How sweet to be a child of God. His heart is bursting with love for us at this very moment!