Why should not believing God personally and lavishly loves us be considered a sin?
“Perhaps, again (see page 177) the extreme pridefulness of thinking one can out-sin God’s love, or maybe it’s belittling Him and the size of His love.”
Think of someone (besides God) you are absolutely positive loves you. Who is this person? “Randy”
List every way you know he/she loves you. Really give this activity some thought.
“He actively pursued me
“[he] got to know me more totally and still proposed
“[he] puts up with my dislike and avoidance of basic chores: cooking, cleaning, laundry
“[he] puts up with my stuff
“yet [he] still tells me how much he loves me and even gushes in letters to me about how blessed he is to have me as his wife.”
“My wife is a great cook” / “Well, my cook is a great wife!”
⃰God thinks about us constantly. In John 17:24, Jesus said, “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am.” I think heaven will be heaven because He will be there, but He thinks it will be heaven because you will be there. A line from a song expresses it so well, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.” No matter what time of night you roll over in bed and become conscious, you will catch God in the middle of a thought about you.
Dearest Rachel –
It seems that this particular study week caught you short on time to put together your daily study answers; here is another of those with incomplete replies. And yet, this is one that strikes me deeply, as it name-checks me in a way that I rarely get to see from you (not that I was ever meant to see this).
I’ve said many times over to people who ask me about dealing with losing you that I am more fortunate than most, as I don’t have the sort of regrets that many do. You know the type; I didn’t let her know I loved her enough, whether through words or deeds. That was never an issue between the two of us. But it always leaves me in awe when I find explicit proof like this. Again, I was never meant to see this, and yet you say these things about me for doing what I thought every married man ought to as second nature.
Besides, it isn’t as if what I did wasn’t reciprocated. After all, you…
…didn’t push me away when I pursued you, but rather responded with open arms.
…learned quickly about my own character, and still were willing to be with me – and trusted me to do the right thing when we were alone together.
…put up with my constant complaints about work (particularly during those last seven years between the merger and your granting me permission to quit).
…took my occasional teasing about your messes and collections with good grace (perhaps aware that they were a problem, but were unwilling to do anything about them, considering it a price worth paying).
…would come up to me and initiate physical contact without request or warning, showing that, despite the fact that (as the song goes) I “may not be the man some girls think of as handsome,” I carried the key to your heart.
Why wouldn’t I tell you how much I loved you (and believe every word I said)? Indeed, everything I might have done could have just as easily been out of the fact that you responded in kind – which barely qualifies as love, if it only exists on a quid pro quo basis. Then again, I suppose human love needs to be nurtured and encouraged, like a treasured plant, in order to blossom into what it ought to become. Ignore or neglect it, and it dies on the vine.
But honey, you were willing to accept my feelings for you, and the actions those feelings prompted, and let that love grow to become a form of emotional vine that completely engulfed our household. Those demonstrations of love were as iconic between us as the ivy on the outfield wall at Wrigley Field. What man wouldn’t consider himself blessed to have that? It isn’t as if it’s guaranteed to any of us, and it seems to be in far less supply than it used to be.
All the same, thank you for the unintended reassurance that I was everything to you that I meant to be. I know that you knew I loved you, but I’m always glad to have proof like this.
In any event, I’m going to have to agree with Jesus about heaven being heaven for you being there, almost as much as Him being there. I hope He understands that…
Letters to Rachel 