Scripture: 1 John 2:2
“Why, Jesus?”
Why, Jesus, why me?
Why love me when I’ve strayed?
Why save me when time and again all I’ve done is disobey?
Was it You, Jesus, who told me I should pray?
Invited me to kneel down, to clasp my hands and say,
“God, it’s me and I am so scared! Is it too late for me?
I’m so sorry, oh so sorry, God. Is there any hope for me?”
God said, “Yes, there is hope! Listen to My truth!
I’ve been waiting on you patiently since your Baptismal birth.”
©Poem by Robin Lybeck
“He [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 2:2
God’s direct encouragement to me through this scripture…
My downcast eyes looked up and my heart rested on the cross, pondering why Jesus would do this for me.
In childhood, I thought that I had to be good for God to love me. I visualized my soul with a letter “s” on it for each one of my sins and I worried that it was completely covered. I hoped there was still some space left but I was worried it was all gone. If God’s love depended on me earning it, I knew I was in trouble.
The first time I heard that it is God who comes down to us was in a membership class for mine and Tom’s first church home. It was the first protestant church I had ever attended. I couldn’t believe my ears! God comes down to us through His only begotten Son, Jesus? Jesus then lives among us and teaches us about His Father? He heals and feeds multitudes, even raising some from the dead? He demonstrates perfect obedience to His Father when He takes the sins of the whole world to the cross and pays for them? All sins, mine included? It was my first awakening to the enormity of God’s love for us and mercy toward us.
God used a time of great worry to bring me home to Him. (I share this experience under the “I See” toggle on the Pursued and Awakened page.) In my worry I stopped resisting Him and ran to Him! Suddenly, it didn’t matter to me anymore that I felt unworthy. My need for Him was greater than my shame. Hope dawned for me when I realized that it wasn’t too late for me to be loved by God.
This is the first foundational scripture God used to encourage me. To go directly to the second one, click here [Butterfly Wings].
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Image: taken from an original oil painting by Tom Lybeck: Living Between the Eternities
