What is God to you? Is He a thought or a feeling? Is He a role model? A security blanket? A father-figure? Santa? Judge Judy? Ebenezer Scrooge?
God can play a lot of different roles for a lot of different people. Aspects of His character fill many unique needs in billions of different people. We paint a picture of God that fits whatever we need from Him at the moment.
Other times, He is misattributed with characteristics foreign to Him, such as spitefulness, hatred, and unjust vengeance. People will spend years of their lives arguing what God is and what He isn't. But as a Christian, there is one thing that we can all agree on regarding our Father.
God is Love.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 4:8, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." This brief, simple description of God tells us all we need to know about him.
It tells us that He encapsulates all of the properties of perfect, unblemished love. Not the distorted version of love that we carry out as humans. Pure, unselfish, beautiful love.
He doesn't tell us not to sin because He likes being in charge and telling us what to do. He begs us not to sin because it pushes us further away from His perfection, and He hates to see His children whom He loves walk away from Him. He doesn't care how far astray we've gone, He will always welcome us back with open arms. He loves us, so He wants to be with us. It doesn't matter how dirty we are. Once we are in His care, He has plenty of time to clean us up. He just wants us to be near to Him.
He is a kind Father, better than any human father we may or may not have experienced here on earth. He protects us, warning us against things that will harm us and fighting off evil we can't even see as we blissfully remain in His presence. So many times we lash out at Him, asking why He hasn't prevented such awful things from happening to us. God lovingly absorbs our hateful abuse, even as He recounts time and time again how He has protected us from worse things in the past or even in the future. He still hurts for us, because He loves us and knows that we are in pain.
This love He has for us is not conditional. He doesn't love us because we're cool or smart or beautiful; He loves us just because, and that will never stop. He loves us when we're hard to love. When we won't listen to a word He says, when we mock Him, or even when we say that we hate Him. No matter how badly we may pain His heart, His love for us remains.
God will never leave us. Whenever we need Him, whatever aspect of His love we need at that moment, He's never out of reach. Whether you go to church three times a week, or have only been three times in your life. Whether you're a model citizen or a seasoned inmate. No matter your situation in life, all you have to do is call on His Name and He will be there for you.
He will embrace you and hold you in His arms as He lets you receive all that He is. And what more could you ever need? For He is Love.
