The Reality of God’s Love

Grateful, Thankful, Blessed

These three words are populating card shops, dollar stores, home décor places, flower shops, reminding us that Thanksgiving is nearing.  

The focus is simple: Give thanks! It causes us to pause and reflect on what you are thankful for.

The easy answers are “Family, Friends, God” (and of course the food eaten at this season!)

But let’s go a little deeper – at the root of “Grateful, Thankful, Blessed” and ”Family, Friends, God” is:  LOVE – when a heart is postured for being thankful, being grateful, counting one’s blessings, knowing God has given us all these things, we feel loved by God.  

He loved us first! He gave everything to demonstrate that – Jesus – His one and only Son.  

God defines love and love shows who God is. One of my favourite passages of scripture that explains this is found in I John 4 starting at verse 7.  

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us…… God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them….. We love because he first loved us.”

I John 4 :7 begins with John’s exhortation for God’s people to love and ends with the why we should love – BECAUSE HE LOVES US! 

As you head into the Thanksgiving season, many of you celebrating in the community of family and or friends, reflect on the great love God has for you, He loved you first!