He loves me!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending my first Women of Faith conference. I've wanted to attend for several years, but never have had the opportunity to go. This year's conference featured some great speakers - Lisa Harper, Lysa Terkurst, Jen Hatmaker - to name a few. Mercy Me did a concert on Saturday afternoon. Kari Jobe and the Gateway Worship Band led worship throughout the conference. On Friday night, we had the pleasure of worshipping with Kari Jobe for about an hour. Worship. Not a concert. Not Kari Jobe on stage performing for the thousands of women gathered. She led worship. She led us through music to sing praises to our Creator and to reflect on His love for us. She is a petite little thing, but, man she can sing!

Back in the hotel room that night, I jotted this down before I went to bed as I reflected on God's love for me. The evening was a great reminder to me of something I have been blessed to have known all my life, but it is always a good reminder to hear.

God is King of Kings. He is the all powerful, all knowing creator of everything...the whole earth, you, me, the heavens, the stars...even the yucky bugs and spiders that freak me out! He moves mountains. And he loves me.

Have you ever seen the Rocky Mountains? Here's a picture, but a photograph cannot do it justice.

Can't you just see God in this picture? Or in the waves of the ocean? Or for us Midwesterners who don't get to the ocean very often, the apparent never ending water that is Lake Michigan? God controls those waves that flow in the lake or the oceans. He controls the tide and He created the moon that controls those tides. Or the deep canyon that is the Grand Canyon? Yes, I know they say that the Colorado River flowed through that canyon for millions of years to create that beauty, but I believe that God told the river where to flow and how to flow.

 

Have you ever felt a baby grow in your belly? Or shared life with someone as they went through pregnancy? We know the biological things that must happen for a baby to develop from two little cells. But the idea that each cell knows what exactly it is supposed to do is truly amazing. So many different types of cells - brain, spinal cord, blood, eyes, muscle, hair, umbilical cord for food, teeth. So many different jobs for each cell, but each cell knows what it is supposed to do. God did that. And because of that, we become moving, breathing, unique and perfect in all our individual ways.

 

At the end of life as part of the dying process, the human body releases a chemical that acts as a natural painkiller or anesthetic to make dying more comfortable. Our God who loves us, the one who knows us by name before the miracle of conception happens, the one who counts the hairs on our heads, THAT God doesn't want us to suffer as we end our earthly life and transition on to meet Him. What an amazing, thoughtful, caring, compassionate thing for God to include when developing the amazing beings that we are.

 

That God, that Creator, that Compassionate One, he loves us. It doesn't matter what we have done in the past. He loves us. He cares for us. He has good plans for us. Even when we turn away or do things to hurt him or others, He loves us.

 

He loves me.

 

He loves you.

 

And here's a song that's been running through my head since then: "How He Loves Us" performed by Kari Jobe.