Central to the faith of those who follow Jesus is the fact God loves humanity unconditionally and unselfishly. At the core is John 3:16 NASB 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. This is probably one of the first scriptures that I learned as a child, and I hope it will become a part of your life as well. As I grew in my faith, there were other scriptures which began to inform me!

John 15:16 NASB 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 NASB 13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you [a]from the beginning for salvation through sanctification [c]by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

1 John 4:10-11 NIV 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. We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19 NIV We love because he first loved us.
It has been and still is a life long journey to become a person who loves unconditionally and lives a selfless life as Jesus did. One never reaches this destination, but the hope is each step takes us closer.

    The first step we all must make is to accept, embrace and enjoy the reality God loves each of us personally and it is not based on our ability to be loveable. God loves us! There is a lot for you to learn about God’s unconditional love!

    Though God loves us and forgives us, it is not a license to do whatever we want. These scriptures while telling us of God’s love for us, also express God’s hope and probably even an expectation we will love others unconditionally. Only God has the ability to love conditionally. God has a vision for us to love as He loves. It’s a great challenge!

    During your life you will have a lot of opportunities to practice unconditional love. There will be successes and there will be failure. Try to get to where your successes start to outnumber your failures.

    There will only be a small number of people in your life who will truly love you unconditionally. Even the best of friends will always have some demands and expectations you may or may not be able to achieve. Friends give us a lot of practice. When Sassy and I started our relationship which led to our marriage, I thought I was doing a fairly well loving her unconditionally. She is really quite easy to love, but unfortunately there are expectations each person brings to a relationship. How we negotiate those expectations will determine our ability to love unconditionally. It wasn’t until your mother was born, I really had to learn how to love unconditionally. As a parent, you want so much for your child. It hurts deeply when you can’t give them everything thing they want. It hurts even deeper when you might not even be able to give them what they need. Showing unconditional love when some needs discipline and direction is a great challenge. Frankly, being a father showed me how incapable of unconditional love I was. It was painful to fail. It was also painful when you did your best to show unconditional love and it still didn’t help a situation.

    Even with all of the challenges, being a father was the greatest experience of my life. Being stretched to give your child the things they want and need. Loving a child when they are struggling! Loving a child when they are disobedient! Loving a child when they don’t love you!

    Every situation taught me a little bit more about how God must feel as a loving Father.
This was the best and most challenging choice I made to be a father to your mother. I cherish the struggle and the successes we share. The pain and joy were all worth it.

    Being a grandfather is much easier. It is not my responsibility to discipline you, but I don’t intend to spoil you! If your parents say no, so do I! If there is something your parents would like for you, Sassy and I will do all in all power to help!

    At the time I was still in charge of your mother, I had a lot of other responsibilities. Though family came first in my life, my call as a pastor was very important as well and required a lot of time and energy. God entrusted me with a great church with a great vision and mission and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve.

    At this time of my life being your grandfather is probably my greatest responsibility. It is my greatest joy.

    One final word about how God loves us. People often comment we are all God’s children. That is only partly true. We are actually God’s creation. We were created out of the earth
(Genesis 27 Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person). Only Jesus was God’s child. Jesus was God’s own flesh and blood. We come into God’s family through adoption. 1 John 3 NASB 3 See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God. As the scripture states, we are called God’s Children. The decision is left to us whether we want to be a part of the family.

    It was a choice to love your mother. It was a choice for her to love us back. Your parents love you, and it will be your choice to love them back.

    So, it is with God! He loves you unconditionally, but the ball is in your court to love God back.

I am praying for you to know and respond to His unconditional love!

Gee Sprague, December 05, 2022