“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 CSB
This promise is one we can never hear enough. I don’t think any of us truly believes God loves us unconditionally. I think we all have those little niggling thoughts at the back of our heads that try to make us doubt the truth of this statement. I could be wrong, but I came from a family that has shown me unconditional love, and I still find it hard to believe. After all, I know all my deep, darkest secrets. But He does. His words says He does, and we’re to believe it.
After I graduated college, I was flight attendant. During that period of time, I made one of the most grievous mistakes of my life. Thinking of it now makes me shudder. I will never forget how my family loved me through it, specifically my Mom and my little brother. I called my brother first, it was a Friday night, I was living in VA Beach, he was in Williamsburg. I was in tears when I called. When he answered, I said, “I’ve done the stupidest thing. I’m not lovable anymore.” You know what he said to me, he said, “There is nothing you could do that will make me stop loving you. Come on home, I’m here waiting.” And he was. I drove home that night and confessed my horrible sin and he never stopped loving me, he helped me through it.
A couple days later, as I was leaving my Mom’s house I told her. She was standing at her front door, I was in the driveway. I never told her the details, I just told her I’d done something that I was ashamed to admit, I hadn’t listened to the advice she had given me. She just looked at me with love in her eyes and said, “Did you learn from it?” I said yes, I certainly had. She said “That’s all that matters, I love you.”
I am blessed, I have experienced unconditional love in my life, more than once. But a lot of people haven’t. They don’t know what it is like to be accepted no matter what. That is exactly what God does for each and everyone one of us. He says, there is nothing we can do that will stop Him from loving us. If you make a mistake, learn from it and keep going. He loves you.
I don’t know if you’ve experienced unconditional love or not. Either way, I pray today, wherever you are, you will accept that God loves you unconditionally. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop Him from loving you. He always has, always will, always does.
