"Because You Love Me"

(This is a repeat from 2011.  Our grandson Jackson was five when this was written.  He will be twelve next week.  Whew!  The clock seems to move faster and faster.  This is one of my personal favorites.   Thanks, Glen)

"Because You Love Me"

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

    Frances has chronicled much of our family's lives in a collection of journals that would be among the first items I would seek to rescue if our house was ever in jeopardy.  As many of you know, her words flow deeply from the heart, and deeply into the hearts of those who read her essays.  

   Back to Jackson. "You wrote this because you love me, didn't you?"  I am reminded of Another who affirmed His Father's love for Himself, and also for us. 

    "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 referred to the many words of God's grace and truth He had communicated to His disciples. In Jackson's terms, our Lord said, "Father, I have spoken to them because You love Me, and I pray that they will know that You love them."  This is true of the entire Word of God.  The Bible is many things, but no more fitting description exists than declaring it to be a gift of love and light 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 not presumptive for the trusting believer to join Jackson in looking up from the Bible we hold in our hands (and in our hearts), and say with the deepest gratitude, reverence, and wonder, "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)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

(Psalm 85:10)