This week I was watching Boss Baby with the kids. Have you seen that one? It's about a boy whose parents tell him that a new baby is coming home, and then it's his journey through the fears and insecurities of what that all means. It's funny and my kids love it, but there's one part that was stressing them out.
The boy, Tim, is afraid that when the baby comes, there will be less love for him. He pictures love as a finite resource, like a stack of blocks that he will have to share: his deep fear is that there will be less love for him.
When the movie got to this part, I paused it and tried to unpack it a bit for my kids. I had seen a few worried expressions flash across their faces, and I wanted to assure them.
"That's a big fear for many of us," I explained, "that we won't be loved. We're afraid there's not enough love to go around. But every one of us comes into the world with our own stack of blocks - our own big pile of love. It never runs out. Because no matter who else loves us or doesn't love us, the One who made us loves us. We are all already loved. And not just loved: so loved. SO LOVED."
And one of the kids piped up, "except bad guys."
And I shook my head. "Nope. Nuh-uh. Jesus told us who God loves. God so loved the world (hear it? sooooooo loved the world) that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Everybody. We're all bad guys, all sinners. And He loves us - He gives us all our own big stack of blocks."
And we turned the movie back on and they dove back into the story, but the truth I got to share with them has been ringing through my heart all week.
I don't know about you, but I say the meanest things to myself in my head.
"You're a bad mom," I think, after losing my temper in an exasperating moment. Or "You should go on a diet." Or "How long has it been since you mopped that floor?"
And the Lord has been interrupting me and saying "so loved" in place of those sharp words.
"You're a so-loved mom. You are so loved. How long has it been since you remembered you were so loved?"
Dear friends, I wanted to share this gospel truth with you.
You are so loved.
It's the reason He sent Jesus.
It's the reason Jesus died and rose again.
It's why the Holy Spirit came.
It's the sure foundation from which we can read the Scriptures, learn from Him, and know Him.
God so loved the world.
