From grade 6 to grade 8 I attended a tiny church school of between 6-12 students covering all of the elementary grades. For two of the three years I attended that tiny school, I was the oldest student there. One of the things I hated about the school is that they imposed a dress code. Navy Blue pants and white shirts for the boys and navy blue skirts and white blouses for the girls. Needless to say, I missed some important lessons on fitting in with kids my age both socially and fashion wise.
Imagine the shock I went through when in grade 9 I attended a very large public school near my home. I went from a school of 8 students to one of over 1700 students and over 300 students just in grade 9 alone! The transition was difficult. No matter what I did, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I didn’t dress like the other kids and I didn’t act like them either. It didn’t make a different what I tried, I was on the outside looking in.
I starting hanging out with the nerds in the school long before being a nerd was cool. I’d spend my lunch breaks playing chess and talking about things like Star Wars, World War II history, video games and computers. Girls would tease each other right in front of me about going out with me. Naively, I’d think they were serious and got shot down hard more than once.
Bottom line, at that time, in that environment, I was a loser. It took many years for my self esteem to bounce back but thank God it did!
Why do I tell you this story? Because the good news of the Bible and of Jesus is that God loves losers too! God’s love for me is not based on how physically attractive I am or how smart I am. It isn’t important who my parents are or on what side of the track I was born. God’s love isn’t even based on how good I am. God loves me because He is love. He can’t help himself. He is our Creator and He loves you and me! Check out this verse, the most famous one in the whole Bible!
“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.” – John 3:16 NIRV
The best part of God’s love is that He is ready and willing to forget every mistake we’ve made in our life whether we did it by accident or deliberately! Think of it this way. Do you think that my father was ashamed of my when I was that awkward, confused grade 9 student? Of course not! Why not? Because my Dad knew that it was normal for me to go through those experiences based on how old I was and my life experiences up to that point. There was no question that my father would want to disown me over my nerdy ways. If my earthly Dad felt that way, what do you think my Heavenly Dad feels?
“See what amazing love the Father has given us! Because of it, we are called children of God. And that’s what we really are! The world doesn’t know us because it didn’t know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God…” – 1 John 3:1-2a NIRV
“But God is faithful and fair. If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins. He will forgive every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure.” – 1 John 1:9 NIRV
Maybe you’ve been tempted to think that you aren’t good enough for God to love you. You may have possibly thought of yourself as a lost cause. Too far gone for God. Friend, I’m here to tell you that no matter what you’ve done in your life, God still loves you. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less. There is only one thing you can do that will put you out of God’s reach. That one thing is to reject His free gift of love. If you reject Him, you will die in your sins. God will honor your wishes and let you die. It would be a shame though since he’s crazy about you and wants you to choose to be with him forever!
You have a choice. Believe what the Bible says about God. Accept Him as your Saviour and your lover or reject him. One offers the best friend and lover you could ever hope for, the other one promises pain and loneliness and ultimately death.
For me the choice is plain. What about you?