Why?

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

As seen at football stadiums all over the country. For the non-believer, yeah, so what. For the believer, cool, now let’s end the TV time out.

But let us think about the significance of the “loved the world do much” idea. Why would the creator of it all – the universe, galaxies, life, humans, wisdom, knowledge, good, bad  comfort, pain, things and places we don’t know about yet – care about us when we are who we are? Because that Creator is pure love. That is really amazing, really incredible, really powerful. We’re also told that we’re created in His image, that He sent his only son so that we might live in eternity with Him. We have been chosen. There is great significance to that.

Our God is a God of love, not hate. Our God is a God of peace, not murder. Our God is a God of justice (which sometimes leads to nasty consequences for those who choose to pee in His Wheaties), not flighty “tolerance”. Our God is a God of wisdom, not ignorance. Our God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniomni. I Am He declares.

This God loves us do much that He sent His only son to die for our sins so that we won’t perish (the consequences mentioned above), but have eternal life. Eternal life. In his presence. In the presence of all He is.

So, why? Because He is pure and perfect love and He loves us. Yes, he loves us imperfect, flawed, selfish beings in a way that we can’t get our head around (if we truly could, we might react to it the way the Fembots did to Austin Powers dancing).

It is so critical that the truth be known by the world so that we can start healing. It’s our calling, or duty, to understand the incredible significance of this sentence. God loves us so much that He sacrificed his only son for us. In return, the least we can do to say thank you is to do likewise.