The fact that God likes us, and why that's better than it sounds

"I think the difference in my life came when I realised, after reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn't just love me out of principle' He didn't just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that caused Him to love me. I think I realised that if I walked up to His campfire, He would ask me to sit down, and He would ask me my story. He would take the time to listen to my ramblings or my anger until I could calm down, and then He would look me directly in the eye, and He would speak to me; He would tell me the truth, and I would sense in His voice and on the lines on His face that He liked me." - Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz (p.258)

I'm currently studying a book called King's Cross by Timothy Keller with my good friend, Caitlin. This morning we met up in town to discuss the two chapter's we'd read through this week and, as usual, she shared some great wisdom with me. We were talking about God's great love for us (a topic that comes up constantly, for obvious reasons) and at one point she talked about this passage in the great book that is Blue Like Jazz (I suggest that you read it if you haven't already). 

Recently I've been thinking a lot about how we find what all humans are lacking in God. It's a pretty important thing to know because it takes immense amounts of pressure off the people in our lives and allows us to love them properly. And today, when Caitlin mentioned this passage, it hit me that God truly likes us. He doesn't just love us, He really likes us. 

Some of you are probably thinking, "well, duh." Right? 

But it's sort of crazy, when you really think about it. God calls us to love people. He doesn't call us to be everyone's best friend. There are some people in life who we just won't be friends with and that's okay (but don't get me wrong, I believe it's incredibly important to try our hardest to love everyone we meet). And for some people, we are that person too. 

But God didn't create a single person who He doesn't want to be friends with.

It takes pressure off being single too, I think. Knowing that God, our Creator, likes us like that. While we're waiting for the right person to come along we can be content in the fact that the maker of the heavens and earth likes us; it's more than enough, more than we could ever hope for or imagine. And it means that we don't need the approval of humans so we'll never have to fear that we're not "good enough".

God really likes us.

We all have our flaws, our wounds, our scars; but God still likes us, He still wants to be around us every single second of every single day. The best part is that it does continue on to love; the unconditional, head-over-heels type that amazes us every single day.  

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