Why does God love us? That was the question my five-year-old grandson asked me the other day. And that question inspired me to write this blog with the theme of Thanksgiving. My first response was “Because He created each one of us.” But there are so many more reasons. Therefore, I encourage you to discover with me how much and how wide and how deep God loves you!
God made us in His image.
From the beginning, God loved us because He created us, humans, in His image. Genesis 1:27 tells us, So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God loves everything He created from the start, and that includes you.
God created every detail of who you are.
In Psalm 139:13, David says, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.” God developed and created each little part of your body since conception. In verse 14, David thanks God, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”
The apostle Paul later reminds us in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” God has a plan for you! A “masterpiece” is a work of art, a masterwork—the culmination of His creation and He gave us dominium over all the rest of creation.
God chose you!
God chose the Jews to be his holy people to fulfill His master plan of salvation which was to bring Jesus into the world through the Jewish people. When Jesus came and the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah, then God opened the plan of salvation for the rest of the world—the Gentiles—which is all of us. Why? Because He loves all of us!
Colossians 3:12 encourages us to have all these character traits. “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
Paul, Silas, and Timothy wrote a letter to the church of Thessalonica to remind them of God’s love for them. 1 Thessalonians 1:4 “We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.” Paul also encouraged the church of Ephesus in Ephesians 1:4-5 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” The church needed to be reminded of God’s love consistently.
God wants us to ask Him for everything we need.
John 16:26-27 “Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.” When we love Jesus, we automatically love the Father because they are one. Therefore, we can ask anything we want in Jesus’ name and the Father will hear our prayers.
Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
In this encouraging Scripture, Paul reminds us that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Read these verses as if they were written directly to you:
Romans 8:38-39 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s thank God during the Thanksgiving season and every day for simply loving us!
I leave you with these final scriptures to meditate on and remember God’s love for you.
Ephesians 3:18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!