A Reminder: You Are God's Beloved

A Truth Surprisingly Easy to Forget

In Discovering Our Spiritual Identity, Trevor Hudson argues that we are God’s beloved. God loves me. God loves you. God loves us. God loves the world. God is love, and God loves.

There is plenty of nuance that could be added here, numerous questions to be addressed. How does God love? How do we know? How do we receive God’s love? What does it mean to experience God’s love? How do we feel God’s love? What happens when we don’t feel God’s love? What does it mean if God feels absent? What happens when our experiences call the notion of a loving God to question? What do we do then?

Those are all very good questions. I’ll have to set them aside for another day. My purpose in writing today is to remind you that God loves you, to remind me that God loves me, and to remind us that God loves us.

That may be a present reality to you, and if so, wonderful.

That may be a distant memory for you, and if so, I hope that today God might gently but firmly impress upon your heart that God’s divine love for you is just as real today as it was the last time you perceived it.

And if you have never thought about, or considered, or experienced God’s love, if you have never received the knowledge that the Ultimate Reality that sustains all of time and existence loves you, I hope you will find yourself mysteriously but no less profoundly and certainly embraced by the love of God that has been extended to every person through Jesus, the Son of God.

The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, tells us of a God of love. The people of Israel are assured of God’s steadfast love which endures forever (Psalm 118). That’s just one place. I will argue that the idea of a loving God is more prevalent in the Old Testament than most assume.

The gospel writers, Paul, and the authors who addressed the early Christians speak with one voice declaring that we know God loves us because of Jesus, not only in his incarnation, but also in his crucifixion and resurrection. We know God loves us not only because of who God is, but because of what God did in and through the Messiah. The love of God is not only sentimental, but it is displayed in action.

Trevor Hudson, in an effort to remind us of our belovedness, has woven together the testimony of Scripture in what he has called a “beloved charter.” Hudson composed this charter, attempting to capture God’s disposition toward him, so that when he forgot the degree to which he was loved, he could remind himself of the immensity and unfathomability of God’s love for us. He writes:

Trevor, you are my beloved child in whom I delight. You did not chose Me but I chose you. You are my friend. I formed you in your inward parts and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor. You have been created in Christ Jesus for good works which I have already prepared to be your way of life. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you. I know all your longings; your sighing is not hidden from Me. Nothing will ever be able to separate you from my love in Christ Jesus, your Lord. Abide in my love.

Remember, you are beloved by God. Don’t forget.

Book Notes

I finished The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. I wrote a lot about this book in last week’s newsletter. By the time I finished the book my early impressions were confirmed. This book addresses a very important topic for our time and will continue to have relevance for my thinking.

I’ve begun Ronald Reagan’s autobiography, An American Life.

I have also started reading Beth Allison Barr’s The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Barr is a historian who serves at Baylor. I’m sympathetic to her critiques of complementarianism, and I’m confident that I will largely end up in agreement with Barr’s conclusions. I could do without the polemics, but the topic, for her, is immensely personal.

Sights and Sounds

It has been a busy and exhausting week. I’m about 80% of the way through the second episode of the Chernobyl mini-series. I finished a documentary about the artist Julian Schnabel, A Private Portrait.

Last Words

On the blog I shared a prayer for the teaching task, a clip where Leonard Nimoy explains the Vulcan hand gesture, and some thoughts on reading to love.

Before I go, standard copy.

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Be well this week. Bless others.

Best,

BAS

P. S. - A sketch from the office.