Linda Buishas
My niece called me from her car one recent afternoon. I couldn’t hear her words for the squealing coming from her back seat. It was my two-year-old great-niece calling out my name. To someone else it might have been unintelligible babble, but to me, it was the sound of her pure love, music to my ears. It brought joy to my heart that she knows me by name and by the sound of my voice. It’s a similar feeling when her five-year-old sister runs laughing with excitement into my arms and nearly knocks me down. Then there’s that heart-melting moment when my 11-year-old nephew looks up at me and warmly says, “I love you, Auntie.” It makes my day. When I’m told that they’re asking to “spend time with Auntie Linda,” my heart melts. They love me, and the only thing I’ve done is just to be me. Knowing they return my love brings indescribable joy to my life. I love them because I simply can’t resist, and I’m so happy they know it. I would give them anything they ask of me, as long as it doesn’t harm them, and I want them to know it. Of course, you know these feelings. We would give them the world if we could.
Do you sense the sweet analogy of God’s love for us? It pleases Him when we call upon His name. When we run to Him with arms outstretched, it fills Him with boundless joy. He has more love for us than we could ever give, for He is pure love, and there is nothing outside of love that He is. He loves to hear us say we love Him in return. He has already given us all that we need, and “no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20). It pleases Him to give us what is best for us and even more than we deserve. He came as a man and rescued us. He had already given us the world.
He loves us simply because we exist, not because we earn it. There’s nothing we can do to lose it. “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). He made us for relationship with Him. He simply asks us to love Him in return.
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). May we approach Almighty God as little children, full of joy, trust, and love.