"God loves us through the good times and the bad."
How many times have we said that, or heard that? Having grown up in a church, I've heard that statement, or some derivative of that statement a thousand times. Think about that statement for just a second. What exactly does that mean? Until a few days ago, I thought it meant probably what most other people think it means - that even when things get hard or messy, and even when our imperfections come out, God still loves us. It's a pretty astounding realization, no matter how many times you hear it; that a perfect and perfectly holy God could still want to be a part of our utterly unholy lives. Kinda cool, no? The God who made the entire universe loves me - not just me as a number, but ME. Amazing. And it would still be so cool if it just stopped there.
But it doesn't. Think about that statement again. "God loves us through the good times and the bad." Normally, when we think about this statement, we think about the "through" part as being passive. But this is not a passive God I'm talking about. This is not a God who sits back and just watches, this is not the god of Deism, this is not a God who is comfortable just observing the universe as a trivial chess game full of expendable pieces while he sits back in his comfy cloud-lay-z-boy recliner in his great grecian robes with the corinthian columns supporting his great house behind the pearly gates. No, this is an active God, a God who directly and deliberately intervenes in our lives. And so what does that mean for a God who "loves us through the good and the bad"? It means that "through", that crazy word we throw in the middle of that statement, is active. God doesn't just sit back and Love us while we heal ourselves through the grief and agony of our friends dying, or through the trials of a divorce, or through the challenges of financial troubles. No, this is a God whose Love is what pushes us through the bad times. This is a God who actively Loves us and transforms our hearts, whose Love is that thing that turns "through" from a word that means while, or during, to a word that means that His Love is the one constant in a world of chaos. And isn't it amazing? God, a Holy God, could Hate us through the good and bad, or Shame us through the good and bad, or Anger us through, or Force us through, or any other number of things that would be completely justifiable (because He is, after all, God). But no, He chooses to Love us through. Love.
Now read that statement again: "God loves us through the good times and the bad."
Amazing!
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