I may be a day late in posting this since yesterday was Valentine’s Day, but I believe that we can never be too late to receive or give love.
Often, people feel as if they can’t come to God. It’s too late, they’ve done too many wrong or bad things, God wouldn’t want them now, they’re too old, or they aren’t worthy enough. But the God I know and read about in scripture is incredibly patient, merciful, and faithful.
But I get it.
We read stories in the Bible about God wiping out armies or people like in the flood with Noah and think that God is sitting on high simply watching for an opportunity to punish or strike us dead.
Not so.
Today when I read in I Peter 3:20 this phrase: “…God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built…”
I considered how long it must have taken Noah to build that ark. It says he had his three sons after he was 500 years old and it started raining when Noah was approximately 647 years old. I’m not suggesting that it took him all 147 years to build the ark, but it also wasn’t built in a few days or even weeks. Some speculate around 75 years – that’s more than 27,000 days. Even the Ark Encounter took over six years or approximately 2,200 days.
What’s my point?
Our average lifespan is the time (roughly) that it took Noah to build the ark during which God patiently waited for people to listen to Noah about God’s love for them.
Anyone? Hello? Anyone?
So we often miss how patient our loving Father in Heaven is. We can also easily forget that Jesus, God in the flesh, allowed himself to be physically tortured, verbally abused, and murdered as a criminal so he could exchange his righteousness for the world’s sin. Everyone. In. The. World. That’s a lot of sin.
And even more love.
Why?
Because God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us, who he created in his image. But he can’t be in a loving relationship with anything that’s against him (evil). You wouldn’t want that. Why would he?
Even so, he died for us while we still weren’t for him.
If that’s not love, what is?
It isn’t too late to grasp that or accept and receive it. And it isn’t too late to give that same kind of love to another. Not necessarily in a romantic sense, but in a I-love-you-as-a-person-enough-to:
- Not speak badly about you even if you insult me
- Forgive you for anything you’ve done to hurt me
- Be kind
- Be honest
- Pray for you
- Share the love of God because Jesus loved and forgave me
- Help you in whatever way I can – food, clothes, a listening ear, rescue, etc.
- Be patient with you as you grow out of broken places and into maturity
- Fill in the _________________.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” I John 4:10
And
“We love because he first loved us.” I John 4:19
Some say it’s the greatest love story in the world. I agree.
God also gives us great love stories in life romantically too. For the month of February you can get our love story for FREE as an e-book or ON SALE in paperback. We celebrate God’s love for us in the way he brought my husband and I together from 8,000 miles apart on an internet dating site. He was a widower with three children and I was divorced with four grown kids. All we could do was trust him.
I also want to thank everyone who purchased copies of these two books below this year. As you may know, every year, I donate a portion of the proceeds to organizations who fight human trafficking as well as rescue and restore those rescued. This years donation in the amount of $20.00 went to A21. Your purchase shows love to me and those helped!
Laura Bennet - Author 