Christine and I recently were blessed by God to become first-time grandparents on December 27, 2019 when Elodie was born to our daughter, Liz, and our son-in-law, Zach. God is working through this new experience for me, the love that I have as a grandparent, to give me a fuller understanding of God’s love for all of His people.
In the 139th Psalm, the psalmist reflects on us being intimately known by God. Even before we are born, while we are in our mother’s womb God knows us:
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139: 13-16.
When I first learned that Liz was expecting a daughter and that they planned to name her Elodie, I experienced love for her. I loved her while she was in her mother’s womb. Each person was created by God. Each of us was known and loved by God before we knew ourselves or were known by any other person. Further, God not only has always known us, but God knows the length of our life, and all of the details in between, before we’ve even been born.
Every person is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Similarly, in Genesis when God created human life, it states that people are made in the image and likeness of God: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” Genesis 1:27. It has been said that every new human life is proof that God has not given up on His creation. Every person is a miracle created by God. Every human life is sacred.
I find this miracle easier to see in my granddaughter, and in young children. I struggle more, at times, to appreciate this in every adult. God doesn’t struggle to love anyone; the love that God has for every person never waivers or falters. Even when we have a hard time loving ourselves, God’s love for us never fails.
It has been said that there is nothing so good that we can do so that God will love us any more, nor is there anything so bad that we can do so that God will love us any less. God loves everyone unconditionally. Even when the love of others lets us down, we can trust that the love of God for us never fails.
In God’s love,
Pastor Dale
PILGRIM COVENANT CHURCH 