Life Changing Love

When I was a young Christian it was something of an in thing to have a "life verse". A verse that was precious to you. A verse of high significance. A verse that helped to guide you or that seemed to sum up your life and your faith.

I never liked being asked what my life verse was, not becasue I was embarrassed to not have one, but because I couldn't settle on one! It seemed to me that there were way too many verses that spoke deeply to my life. Thus when someone would ask me if I had a life verse I would often respond with a qualifier like, "Well, today my life verse is...." Of course that seemed to go against the thought of a life verse and so I felt a certain amount of relief when people stopped asking that question (today they may have thought I had a form of A.D.H.D!)

Yet having said that, I find that over the years my heart does return to certain passages or verses. Three such passages are Psalm 23, Romans 8 and 1 Corintians 13. They never fail to speak to my heart regardless of my circumstances. However recently I have returned to a simple verse from the Apostle John

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1 NIV).

When I became a Christian it was something of a culmination of looking for a father figure. My dad had died in his sleep when I was seven and from the moment I knew he was gone I had a hole torn out of my heart. I began looking for someone to replace him, but I was unable to find anyone who could. I loved athletics and turned out for teams in middle school and high school. I lived for sports, but inwardly I was always hoping that one of my coaches might be that elusive father figure to me. It never happened.

When I became involved in Young Life as a high schooler I began to hear about a father who wanted to be my father. It wasn't too long after that I gave my heart to Christ and I came into relationship with my heavenly father. It was thrilling for me and as I read in the Bible I noted the imagery of the father-child relationship with frequency. But the verse that really caught my attention was the one John penned. An old man when he wrote it (perhaps in his 90's) his heart still thrilled to think that God would lavish his love on us and call us his children. God's children!

That's my Abba, Father! There is something so simple, yet so profound in being God's child. To belong to one who will never fail me nor forsake me. One who cared so deeply for me that he made a way to adopt me into his family. I expect that as my life on this earth continues I will reflect on other passages and be blessed richly by them. But I suspect it will always be the enthusiastic, wonder-filled words of the old Apostle, that will cause my heart to soar. Maybe 1 John 3:1 is my life verse.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
St. Augustine