What is it that you and I long for most? Loving relationships.
To belong. To be in loving, meaningful relationships with others. And that shouldn’t surprise us, because God MADE us that way. He planted within us his capacity for loving relationships, his “relational DNA.”
God gave us his ability to love, so that we would “do life” in loving relationship with others.
As Genesis 1 tells us, God created humans in his own image; he patterned our design after himself. God wants us to experience life through loving relationship, just as he has done in perfect harmony as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches us that life is sacred at every stage, and that every person matters. Christianity is meant to be a tangible expression of God’s love.
To do Christianity “right” requires that we seek to walk in love. And to be in “right relationship” with others requires that we see them with the value that God does.
We are unique, one-of-a-kind individuals, each with our own gifts, talents, and personality. You may wish you had someone else’s talents, or someone else’s life. That’s understandable, as we tend to play the comparison game and get sucked into society’s view of “success” rather than God’s.
But if we believe that God specifically created us for his purposes, we can choose to trust and appreciate that. Then we can surrender our egos and let go of comparison. We can look forward to partnering with God, finding joy in developing our best selves so that we are open to being used by him.
We have to offer ourselves grace as we do this growing — and offer it to others, as we’re all messy humans in the process of sanctification. What fuels relationships is kind, generous, authentic connection. Lifting each other up, rather than tearing each other down. Remembering that love is always the goal.
Our universal need for connection and acceptance might sound like this: “I’m not perfect. Please allow me to make mistakes. Please look beyond my failures and imperfection and love me anyway.”
When we relate to God and to each other through the lens of love, as he planned, we bring him glory. Our human efforts to love don’t compare to God’s love, of course. He’s a master painter; at best we’re preschoolers scribbling in a coloring book. But God is not surprised by this. And he has far more faith in us, perhaps, than we do ourselves.
In our best moments, when we do love others exceedingly well, he is delighted.
Next Steps
> Do you want to know more about God’s loving nature? Start here.
> We invite you to read Josh’s book, More Than a Carpenter, to understand the depth of God’s love for each of us.
