Before You Were Conceived, He Loved You.
When I was in grade school it was common practice to pick flowers and use them to tell whether or not our love and devotion were well placed. We would find a daisy and as we pulled each petal, we would grow closer and closer to the final answer: Does he love me or not? He loves me. He loves me not. Each time we pulled a “He loves me” petal, our hearts would jump with hope and anticipation. When we pulled a he loves me not, often some little flaw of ours would come to mind. At the end, were left holding a dead looking flower stem and the answer. We would leave the scene in a good mood if He Loves ME was the final petal standing, and often throw it down and pick another if we got the wrong answer.
You see, even in grade school we wanted to know that *we* were special and loved by someone, even if that meant nothing more than someone who would sit by you on the bus, pass notes to you in Social Studies, or stand behind you in line when it was time to move from class to class.
I have great news for you! Let’s pretend there is this great big daisy in heaven just waiting for each of us. But this one is special because every single petal has the same answer. He LOVES YOU.
The love that our heavenly father lavishes on us is not the kind of love that you read about in romance novels or see on TV every night. Instead, He has a unique and precious love of a Holy and Living God who wants nothing more than for you to fully grasp the message of His love for you, and let it do a transforming work in your life. John 3:1 says: 1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
One of the first Bible songs many of us memorize is: Jesus Loves Me.
Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong.
I think that most Christians know that Jesus loved us even before we ever existed. Just in case you need a reminder, you can just review John 3:16, one of the most basic verses that tells us:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. You know that even before you were conceived, God loved you.
