God Loves Me Too?

Does God love me as much as He does you? Questions such as these come to our minds whether we necessarily want them to or not. You preach to African children. Joe feeds the homeless and then hands out Bibles at the shelter. Sherri sells purses to raise funds to build a school in Guatemala. Back in the day, He was literally counting stars with his buddy ol’ Abe. What do I do? Wellllll, (scratching head) the list goes on and on really, with the most extensive part being…uhhh…being…raising 2 kids? Making it to church before worship is over? Managing to finally get that “Praying for you!” card dropped in the mail while trying to find new shoes to put on the kids’ feet? Does God love me as much as He loves Joe or Sherri or Abraham? The resounding response I hear with all of my being as I type is: YES!!
God loves us! He loooooves us!! If He were here, in the flesh, right now, He couldn’t quit huggin’ on us, like that lipstick-smearin’ aunt you used to get one too many kisses from! He loves us!
To be quite honest, yesterday was a day that I didn’t feel it as much as I wanted. Call it what you will, anything from hormones to an attack from the enemy to stress to all of the above. It doesn’t really matter what you call it, the ick factor was there and I couldn’t seem to shake it. God loves me. I would say that to myself and there would be a defiance in my spirit and self that would say, “Oh yeah? Really?” Ew. This was a prime example of me focusing not on what was important (God) but on what was happening around me (bombings, explosions, homeless, child abuse, divorces, tragedy, loss of babies, loss of loved ones…) This list seems to be much longer than the 3-letter word behind “important” above. You would think we would be able to focus on God more since the second list is overwhelming to ponder and try to figure out. God and His love for us aren’t so apparent on some days? Can that be true? I think it is, not by a fault of His, but our own. We allow the weight of the world and the disgusting events down here to poison our minds and our days. Let it not be so. We are to grieve and to grieve with those who grieve, even as Jesus grieved and wept. (Maybe not on His way to to a dreadful stupor-center, where He had to gather Himself and find an appropriate, more “hidden” place to park due to the fact that He was weeping a little insanely, buuuut, that’s neither here nor there.) God loves us so much that one day, He’s taking us away from all of this nonsense and ugliness down here. No more sorrow, no more killing, no more acts of cruelty, no more deaths of innocent children, no more tears. Not a one. Let this be our focus today as we continue to look to the only One Who can heal our hearts while we are here.