Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

This rhetorical question addresses what is perhaps the most foundational need of the human soul, the need to be loved. In the next few verses Paul goes on to answer his own question, but it is still one that echoes to the depths of our being. Even a person who has the immense blessing of being raised by genuinely loving parents eventually discovers that the world itself at times doesn’t seem loving at all. That’s why an intimate relationship with God, who is love, is the greatest of treasures. Circumstances change and human parents age and die, but God never changes, and His love and grace are more than equal to anything we could ever face. Martyrs down through the centuries testify to that! A solid grasp of God’s love is foundational to spiritual and emotional maturity.

I always touch on this subject when counseling couples before their weddings, with the expectation that they will have children. Much of the evil in the world today is closely tied to the failure of parents to express love rightly to their children, and that is ample evidence that parents need all the help they can get. Sadly, few of them had good examples in their own upbringing, so they don’t know how to go about it with their children. In counseling people of all sorts, not just young couples, I often have occasion to quote quote the saying, either directly or indirectly, that “Everything God does is love, whatever it looks like at the moment.” Even His wrath is in that category, because it is seen only by those who turn their backs on His love. I need to remember it myself, and communicate it with His words and His wisdom to all who have ears to hear.

Father, thank You indeed for Your overwhelming love. Thank You for continuing to broaden and deepen my understanding of it. Help me never turn my back on it in any way, but walk in grateful obedience at all times. May my words and my example draw many others to trust Your love as well, so that we may walk together in all that You intend for us, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!