The Father Loves You! (Part One)

“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.…..your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.” Genesis 2:7, Psalm 18:35b, c

Living here in the “Bible Belt” it would be hard to imagine that anyone who attends or attended Sunday school would not know to some degree John 3:16. I do know for sure that some guy at most football games does and he usually sits at the end zone somewhere. I am sure at this point the words are flowing through your mind and off your lips.

Well, we know the verse, but do we really know the verse? This is not a trick question, but simply asked to make us really think. “Does God love me? Does He really care about me and my circumstances? Is He aware of what I am feeling right now, and does He really have an answer for me?” There are so many people in this world and so much conflict, do you really think He is concerned about me?” These and many other questions flow in and out of our minds from time to time and they warrant an answer.

I enjoy trying to imagine if I can what a particular event in the Bible must have looked like. What would it have looked like, for example, for the Red Sea to have all of a sudden opened up in one evening and make way for a million or more people to walk through on “dry” ground. Even more intriguing yet is what it would have looked like for that Sea to close in and drown all of Pharaoh’s army? Oh well.

I want you to think with me about that day in the Garden when the Father made man. A little dirt here, a splash of dust there, a smidgen of clay…and there you have it, man! Sounds so simple doesn’t it? I can just hear the angels, who I imagine were surrounding the scene in awe of what the Father was doing, gasping when the finishing touches were made on Adam. “It looks just like Father!” Perhaps so as Adam was made in the image of God.

Then the account says that God breathed into his nostrils. Now most of us understand that the only way to breath into someone’s nostrils is to get pretty close to those nostrils. It could have only looked like one thing and that was a kiss. (See 2 Kings 4:34)  For some that may take some getting use to or at best great imagination so let’s move on.

Assuming the Father was very close to Adam’s nostrils, what then would have been the first thing Adam saw when he opened his eyes? He would have been looking straight into the eyes of the Father! And what he must have seen was one hundred percent pure, complete, unconditional, and amazing love. At that moment Adam would not have had many words to express what he must have seen and felt, but I imagine there must have been a gasp of some sort. He would have been overwhelmed with the love the Father had for him.

For Adam at this point there were no such words such as sin, hate, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger or the like. The word love likely did not exist at the moment, but all he knew was that he was loved. Wow!

We know the story of the fall and become saddened to realize that man became separated from that love. Not that the Father didn’t still love man, but because of sin, man could not feel what Adam once felt. Until Jesus came and began to not only demonstrate that love to the world, but then He died so that man could again know the love the Father had for him from the beginning.

Today, if you are in Christ, I believe that there is an amazing amount of unconditional love being poured out in and through you. I also believe that we are living in a day when the Father is revealing that love in greater proportions in real and tangible ways around this earth. When Jesus said in John 14:6 that he was the “way the truth and the life”, He was describing a pathway and a destination. Jesus is the pathway and the destination is into the Father’s love.

Psalm 18:35b, c says that, “…your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.” Literally it means, “Your gentleness makes me great.” You see, the love that the Father has for you today is gentle and kind and long suffering. He desires to have intimate relationship with you and for you to really know Him for who He is. You are truly loved beloved and my prayer is that today you will experience the revelation of that love!

Next week I want to show you how this tremendous love of the Father becomes the greatest witnessing tool we have. Until then, may the out-flow of your life be from the over-flow of the in-flow of His love!

Vince Mercardante, Sr.