A Quick Reminder: God Loves You!

I don’t know who needs to hear this right now, but! Since reminders are always good:

God loves you.

Yes, you. No matter how unworthy of love that you may feel, no matter how broken you think you are, no matter how worthless you feel He loves you. In fact, He loves you more than you will ever know.

Do I need to repeat myself?

God loves you.

How much does He love you? Here is one of the stories that Jesus told, in order to describe how much God really loves us:

Let’s take a look at this picture, which illustrates this story:

See how lovely the details are? Murillo certainly did a beautiful job! Best yet, this art was originally displayed for a hospital which served the homeless, hungry, and the poorest of all. Which makes this artwork even more powerful, in my opinion.

There are many little details in this painting! The servants have brought out the finest robe, his sandals, and yes! Even the ring. If you can’t see the ring, click a picture to see it in even greater quality! The man next to the man carrying out the robe is holding the ring.

Take a good look at the robe… it is blue. In the ancient world, blue was the hardest dye to come by, so blue garments were exceedingly rare. Thus, this robe is particularly fine!

Some of the servants are bringing out the fattened calf… along with the means to slaughter it, indicating that a feast will indeed take place!

But the focus of this painting? The father and his once-lost son. And the father and the son are together in a loving embrace, their eyes only on each other.

Mind you, the father could have very easily disowned his son in anger. Or, perhaps he could have taken his son’s words at face value and turned his son into a servant.

But the father didn’t. Instead, he forgave and welcomed his son back into the family.

And that is how much God loves you.