I want to talk about our resistance to love. Why would we resist being loved? I mean seriously, we long for it, we want it, we know how good it feels, but we somehow resist the idea that God is this great lover. And the reason is pretty understandable when you look at the way in which we’ve been taught about this God. You know, the first story that I remember about Bible stories was a very interesting story about these two people that were created by God, given a beautiful garden and almost like it was like they’re just like my parents. I heard this story when I was 7 years old and you know, I had a house in a backyard and that was the place I lived.

And then I hear this story about God and God had these two children like I was a child in my parents house. And when these children didn’t do what they were supposed to when they disobeyed. And that was a big thing when I was growing up. Don’t disobey your parents. You have to obey your parents. But in that story, when they disobeyed God, the story is often told in a way that he was so angry and furious that he kicked them out of the garden and sent them away from them.

Now there’s nothing more frightening for a child than to think your parents are going to kick you out. Isn’t it interesting that we start at least I did my experience of God by okay, here’s a God that if you disobey, he punishes. Now it’s not unusual to see that same kind of thing when you disobey adults because you get punished. So my thought is the reason we have a hard time believing in unconditional love is because we haven’t experienced it. We’ve heard stories about God where he doesn’t sound like an unconditional lover. He doesn’t reveal that until the New Testament.

And then we also have our experience with parents and teachers. And if you don’t do what you’re supposed to, you get punished. All you have to do is realize that at the heart of your relationship with God, he never punishes ever. Never. There’s a punishment that sometimes comes with making a stupid mistake and things don’t go well. But there’s only one way to imagine God’s heart, and that is it reaches out to you whenever you sin and calls you to awareness of who he is for you.

The God who wants you to believe in your goodness, he created it. And if you believe in that and know that that’s there, then you’ve experienced mercy. Mercy is simply pure, unconditional love. What a gift. And what an incredible thing to understand that it’s your gift so you can give it to other people without knowing and experiencing it coming to you. You’ll never give it to another.