At different stages of life, we are appreciative for varying parts of God’s character and role. For example, as a young child, it is easy to look to God as a protector, much like we understand the function of a father. He could scare away any creepy visitors in our bedrooms at night or keep us safe in the midst of booming thunder. As a college freshman, it is easy to look to God as a friend, one who can offer compassion and companionship as we venture into a world of strangers and “grown-up” responsibilities. It is not until I had my daughter, though, that I was able to understand God as unconditional love.
Even as my baby grew in my womb, I had fallen in love and created an unbreakable bond. She was always close and easily protected, and I was blessed enough to be the one who could feel every move she made. As soon as I delivered her, however, I had to learn, little by little, to let her go and be apart of the world around her. I slept for nights with my head next to the lacy bassinet listening to her every sound. I held her close to me and rocked her anytime she got overwhelmed with the people and things going on around her. I still, after eighteen months, touch my palm to her chest each night to feel her breathe before I head off to bed. I do all of these things because I have a responsibility to care for her; after all, God loaned her to me for her lifetime on earth.
But, most importantly, I do all of these things because I love her in a way I have never loved another thing, with a sense of unconditional love. Because of my overwhelming desire to care for and love her, I am starting to get an idea about how God can love “a sinner like me.” It does not matter how many rules my daughter breaks, how many tantrums she throws, or how many food items she tosses from her highchair, no action makes me love her less and no good deed, sloppy kiss, or tight hug could make me love her more. I simply love her with my whole being because she is mine. And that’s how God loves me. And that amazes me still!
Though as parents, our role is often discipline or guidance, we also find ourselves with a desire to GIVE our children anything within our means. We desire for their needs to be met. We even desire for their every want to be met. For example, I think my husband has already promised a yard full of ponies to our little girl who doesn’t even know what one is. Generosity simply becomes natural as a mom or dad.
This generous spirit is one we learn from God, one we inherit as sons and daughters in His image. And as I began to think about all the ways in which God demonstrates His giving attitude, the most significant one continued to jump out at me. He gave the world His Son as a living sacrifice! He did not simply send him far away to become a teacher and missionary. He did not simply give him as a preacher in a rebellious land. He did not simply send him as a doctor to care for the helpless. He sent Him to die. His most loved…to die.
John 3: 16-21 shows us:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
There is no generosity greater and none more powerful, for God suffered by watching his Son suffer so that he could provide us with salvation, with a reconciliation to Himself. The world when Jesus arrived was much like it is today—full of a lot of unlovable and sinful humans, but God thought us worthy to be saved. Oh what a generous and loving Father we have!
God has shown me generosity in many ways in my life, but as I reflect on what he has taught me about those gifts he has given, I realize that I too must learn to be generous. I must use my time, resources, and love to give freely to anyone around me, but I should also offer up my heart, mind, soul, and strength generously to Him. After all, after the sacrifice He made for me, He clearly deserves it. I want everyone one to see that “what [I have] done has been done through God.”