How He Loves

I remember a moment, three and a half years ago.  It was my fourth whole day at Hope College, at the annual favorite tradition, Groovin in the Grove.  Two straight hours of chapel band in the pine grove.  Hundreds of classmates giving glory to God.  I didn't know most of the songs we sang at the time, but "How He Loves" has long been one of my favorites.  It hit me in that moment, tentatively standing at the back of the crowd with my new roommate, looking out over the crowd, some with hands raised, all singing out.  These are my classmates.  I get to call this place home, go to school here, where so many people around me love Jesus like I do.  It was a new experience at that time, and it was so beautiful.  In a haze of lost and confused and what did I just do, God brought peace through that moment.

Fast forward, from semester one to semester eight.  After worship.  "How He Loves."  Everyone in the band stopped singing loud so I just heard the crowd behind me.  I thought of that moment freshmen year, when everything was so new that I didn't even have a context for it.  However, I knew that God would not forsake me and that He brought me to Hope beyond the shadow of a doubt.  I know that will be true of the next season.  There's something so powerful about declaring truth together.  Maybe we should do it more often.

I still love this song because it's so simple, yet so profound.  The God of the universe loves us, individually, by name, as His kids.  It's radical and beautiful.  I'm stepping into another season now, and its really important that I receive the love of the Father.  It's the response to His radical love that I live out each day of my life.

Especially in the big transitions, its important to seek more of who God is and to celebrate Him and the things that He does.  It's glitter snow and praying with friends and learning guitar and singing in community and Hudsonville Turtle Pecan ice cream during the Oscars. 

These gifts are not essential to the love the Father, and receiving them or not doesn't mean that someone is more or less loved by Him or that they have or haven't done (or not done) anything to deserve them.  It's just a tiny snapshot of the good things that come from Him, because He is goodness and He is the only way.