I go to prepare a place for you...

John 14:2-3
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

The Love of God that illuminates from this promise fills my eyes with tears.  Oh, truly how He loves you and me – so much so that He would go away to prepare a special place for the perpetual inhabitation of His own. God’s intention for His children to someday bask in the light of His presence for all eternity is made clear.

David said in Psalms 139, that the Lord was acquainted with all his ways, even the thoughts that would enter his mind in the future.  God is aware of my daily activities and all of my heart’s desires and intentions. Matthew 10:30 notifies us that the very hairs on our heads are numbered.  This tells me that God knows me so personally and with that, He knows me even better than I know myself. 

He comprehends me in my entirety and yet He loves me no less.  Rather He continues to chisel and sculpt and mold and break and build and I awake to mercies that are new every morning.  He sees what I’ll be if I ever “get it right”, cause I don’t always understand, but His way is so perfect and my steps are ordered and He’s faithful to finish the work He’s began in me (Phil. 1:6).  God's love never requires me to compromise myself or be any less than the vessel of honor that He’s purposed me to be.

It's amazing how much of a parallel there is between the relationship God seeks to have with his bride (the church) and the relationships we seek after in the human realm.  Our human desire is to be loved unconditionally and with a promise that those we hold so dear will never leave us.  I consider the sting of disappointment we feel when the love we have for someone else is not reciprocated.  It causes me to wonder what God must think when He experiences the same unfaithfulness and lack of commitment from His children.   

Foolishly, I have spent too many years of my life in the relentless pursuit of securing an earthly relationship that bore any resemblance to that perfected love that my Heavenly Father so freely gives.  Perhaps even to the extent of unconsciously taking the love of God for granted in this quest for human acceptance.   I thank God for His forgiveness and His enduring patience with me as I’ve learned this lesson.

While so many things in this world are vying for our affections, God wants to remain our first love.  And we know that there is nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35-39). Allow yourself to be overwhelmed today by the fullness of the love of the One who loved you first (I John 4:19).  People search the world over for this very love that encompasses us daily.
 
Please, feel free to share your thoughts or words of inspiration on this subject.  We are made overcomers by the word of our testimony.