Seeing God

This coming Sunday at our first full youth group meeting (hooray for the 6th graders moving up!), I will be speaking about God's family. In my preparations, I read through parts of 1 John trying to understand our relationship to one another as God's people. Here's what I found out:

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:10) It is never us who initiates love. All love comes from Love Himself. Love is sacrificial. John goes on to say, "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11) God loves us; we love others. We are enabled to love others because of the love of God within us that overflows out of us. OK, here's the really cool part: "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:12) Right, none of us has ever seen the Father. To me, that's one of the hardest things about following God. I've never seen Him face-to-face. He's not physically here when I need to feel loved. He's not physically here for me to love Him back, and He's not physically here to show me how to love others. BUT if we love each other, God is within us, and His love is made complete. God's love comes full circle when we express the love we've experienced to others. And, I think it's implied here, we SEE God.

Do you see the implications of this? If we love others, they see God. I have been blessed with friends who have almost forced their love on me when I've wanted to deny it because they want me to see how much God loves me. What a witness, and how indebted I am to you all for the ways I now more deeply experience God's personal love! However, if we fail to love others, they will not see God. Think about those who have grown up in a broken family. They have a very hard time understanding how God is a loving Father if their own earthly father has never shown them love.

I don't get it. I know God can reveal Himself to others without our help, but I also know that God's love is not made complete until it is received by us and shown to others. All I know is that I want to be a part of a family that loves one another so that we more deeply understand God's love.

Go love someone today who needs to see our God, and invite them into the family!