How Much

09.09.12

1 John 3.1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. NLT

I’m not sure how many folks apprehend what is really being said here: God calls us – we weak, pathetic, selfish, petty, fickle, unreliable, lying, cheating, adulterous, dishonest, apathetic people who claim we believe in Him – His children. (I didn’t even mention disgusting, murderous, evil, and wicked.) Today, after years of reading 1 John 3, I think I just might be beginning to get it: being called God’s child is as infinite and marvelous as calling God, God. It doesn’t mean I am infinite – only He is - it means I have access to all He is for all I do.

Now, before we drive the bus off the cliff with that last statement, I mean not that all I do is what is important – no, all that He does is important, but He avails Himself to His children to do all He has in mind for them. Big difference. We focus on production – God focuses on being. We focus on benchmarks and steps and progression; God focuses on just being with us and our being with Him. Relationship with God, in my mind, is perfectly (well, adequately) pictured in the human institution of marriage (although we humans have screwed that up royally as well).

God calls us His children because He desires a deep and lasting relationship with His sons and daughters – we are precious to Him. We are precious to Him as we are but also because of what rubs off on us as we rightly relate to Him. And rightly relating is even a stretch for the best of us. We are so fallen, but if we glimpse (or get a glimpse) of who He really is and what He is really accomplishing in us, then life on this earth, as good as we think it may be, doesn’t even enter the arena of what might be the worst day in heaven. Heaven is that good, but for as good as it is, being with God is even better. Nothing compares to being with the One who calls us His sons and daughters.

We are lazy and God calls us to so much more. We are easily tired and distracted (kinda like little babies) but God calls us to maturity on a level that we can’t comprehend because we’ve never been there; but He promises it is way beyond what we can think, imagine, or hope for. And all along the way, He calls us His children.

John says the world cannot recognize who we are because they don’t know God. I understand that. I know that a knowledge of God is essential for every human being and that where they go with that knowledge makes the difference between life and death. I understand that. What I don’t understand is how much my God loves me that He would call me, Paul Turk, His son. That I don’t understand. I think I know Paul Turk pretty well and at best, I think he’s tolerable. But God says, no, he’s way more than that – he is my son. That I don’t understand… but I do accept. As best I can, I accept sonship from God because the more I live in this world with all its glitz, glamor, and value – I need something more than the best, or most sought, that this world has to offer. Today, I accept I am God’s son and He loves me enough to call me that.

How much does God love us? He calls us His children – that’s how much!