We can say that God is love and we would be speaking the truth. But in order to fully understand His love, we must grasp His holiness as well. I hear many messages of God’s love and it is good to be reminded of it, but if we preach love only and leave out His holiness, we make God less than what He is. We diminish His character. We leave out what makes His love so perfect and complete. When we understand how Holy God is, and how completely hopeless our situation is apart from Christ, we begin to see the depth of His sacrifice and love. He didn’t want us to be shut out from His presence, it grieved Him so much that He sacrificed a part of Himself, His Son. “I and the Father are One” John 10:30 Only an unimaginably terrible parent would be unaffected by the suffering of their child.

God has not left one thing undone, and there is now absolutely nothing to prevent us from drawing close, being ushered into His presence as His very own sons and daughters. This is what He has always wanted. Don’t we all want a love like that? A love that says, no matter how far you stray, I will do everything I can to get you back, even if it means inflicting pain on Myself! Not only that, He gives us a new identity. You never have to feel misplaced again, unwanted, stranded on the island of misfit toys, without a place to belong.

We serve a God who does not sit on His hands, idly disinterested in the events of the world. Even now He fights for us……”Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 8:34

That means we never have to go through anything alone again….

God is in the thunder that rolls, and the lightning that splits the sky, but He is also in the gentle breeze that whispers our name. The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3