"Because You Love Me"

The Jackson Chronicles --Part 5

(Another episode involving our 5 year old grandson Jackson, who has a penchant for doing and saying things that direct our attention upward)




"You wrote this because you love me, didn't you?" Our grandson Jackson asked Frances this question as he looked at the journal about him his grandmother has written since he was born.


Frances has chronicled much of her life and ours in a collection of journals that, if our house caught on fire, would be the first items I would likely seek to remove for safekeeping (while also, of course, grabbing my guitar!). As many of you know, Frances is a great writer whose words flow deep from the heart, and reach deep into the heart. Along these lines, I'll provide the link below for her blog, "The Powder Room," in case you haven't visited it.


Back to Jackson. "You wrote this because you love me, didn't you?" I'm sure you know where we're headed from here.


"I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26).


The Lord Jesus Christ spoke these words to His Father concerning the words He had spoken to His disciples. In Jackson's terms, our Lord might have said, "Father, I said them because You love Me, and because You and I both love them." This is true of the entire Word of God. The Bible is many things, but nothing more more accurately describes it than proposing it to be a gift of love from God's heart to the heart of humanity.


To Israel in the Old Testament: "I have loved Thee with an everlasting love." To the church in the New Testament: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Jeremiah 33:3; Ephesians 2:4-7). It is no presumption whatsoever for the trusting believer to join Jackson in looking up from the Bible we hold in our hands (and in our hearts), and saying with the deepest affection, gratitude and reverence, "Father, You wrote this because You love me, didn't You?" We can be sure the answer is the same Jackson received from Frances: "Yes, I did."


"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory...to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."
(Ephesians 3:14; 16; 19)


The Powder Room