God’s Love for His Children

God loves children and babies. The Almighty, Eternal God who, with his breath and words, created our intricate world and commands billions of galaxies, is goo-goo over babies and children.

You could have called me a career woman before I had children. I controlled large budgets, sat in boardrooms often as the only woman around the table, ran departments and oversaw major projects. 

When I became pregnant I worried. What it would be like to care for a small, helpless human being who would only feed, sleep, cry, burp, and poop? I also wanted to love my baby but wondered if my love would be enough.

As I gave birth to my daughter and held her in my arms for the first time, I was overwhelmed with intense feelings of attachment, adoration, and affection.

Although this is not the same experience for everyone, hopefully we understand love for a child when we hold another person’s baby and feel the warmth of his or her body, and know their helplessness and dependence on another human being.

Babies can help us grasp the intensity of God’s love for us. We are his children. He longs for every human being to be his child. 

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life (John 3:16 MSG).

Not only that but God is a Father. Although his Son has existed with him since eternity, God became the Father of a human baby.

God the Father sent his Son to grow and kick in the womb and who would, like all babies, only feed, sleep, cry, burp, and poop.

God rejoiced as any proud father, sending a whole host of angels to light up the sky far better than any firework display, to sing in dulcet tunes, and announce the birth of his Son. 

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him (Luke 2:13-14 MSG).

And God allowed his Son to bring wide eyes and smiles on the faces of all who held his baby. 

The Son of God the Father held by his mother, passed to one shepherd after another. A shepherd who was used to helping an ewe give birth, wiping the afterbirth away from the lamb’s eyes, took the Lamb of God in his rough, dirt under the fingernails, hands. No doubt he marveled in those few moments that God loved him so much he sent his Son to be a human baby and the Lamb who would be the sacrifice for sins, once and for all.  

Now God, through his Son Jesus, invites us to be born into his family. Jesus described it as being born again 

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God (John 1:12-13 emphasis mine).

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 John 5:1).

Like the birth of babies, our spiritual births can be very different. Some of us are born into God’s family easily. We grow up in a Christian family and accept Jesus as a child and continue from there in our faith. Others of us struggle to believe and it’s like a long labor to come into God’s family.

But with our new birth, we are swept up into God’s spiritual family. For all of us, there is huge rejoicing in heaven, a party is thrown, the best food and drink are served. There is no holding back with the birth of a child of God.

There’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue (Luke 15:7).

And, God looks on his children with intense love.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)

God is tender and takes care of the needs of his children, more than just like a good parent, but as a perfect parent. Here are 10 reassurances you can have as God’s child:

As God’s child you can be sure that:

He will provide perfectly for your needs today. And my God will meet all your needs (Philippians 4:19).

He cares about the smallest details. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30).

He holds your hand and guides you. The Lord will guide you always (Isaiah 58:11).

He reaches down to pick you up when you are in danger. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand (Psalm 40:2).

He hears and responds to your cries. You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry (Psalm 10:17).

He searches for you when you are lost. Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home (Luke 15:3-6).

He waits for you to return to him when you walk or run away. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

He has created the luxury and comfort of an everlasting home for you. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2).

He has a rich and permanent inheritance for you so you don’t need to worry about the future. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:3-4).

Most of all, he offers total forgiveness for anything you do that is against him. He forgives and forgets. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

Say this prayer to thank your heavenly Father that you are his precious child.

Pray