You are loved.
I've been doing videos as often as I can, talking how we can find Peace in the middle of everything that's going on at the moment.
And although today I had another video planned, I think this is the message we all need to hear. You are loved.
Loved by whom? Loved by God, your Father. Perhaps the Father you never knew.
There are some of you out there that will understand what I mean by this as 'the Universe'. You've encountered something of God but understand it in a different way.
Well, I want to introduce you to him as God the person. God the father who loves you.
See, the Universe, the theory of the 'Big Bang', posits that everything comes of chance in the aftermath of an explosion.
If you've ever walked in the aftermath of an explosion, you know that, with tremendous force, it rips, tears, shreds, uproots. If there is life it's twisted and torn apart.
God's hands are not like that. He grows, mends and heals things with new and perfect life. With intentionality he gives to both the deserving and the undeserving, in love. Because of the love he has for those to whom these things are given.
Even here, look at what is unfolding in just my backyard. These are not the work of an explosion, but rather the work of an artist, each intricately woven together, for you! Knitted together with perfection, along with sunlight, oxygen, fruit and water, everything we need to be healthy!
I've walked among the wild flowers in the land around the See of Galilee where Jesus walked, and was amazed by what he said of them, recorded in Matthew 6. I'll paraphrase.
...do not worry about your life...
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Matthew 6:26
To God you are valuable. He loves you.
Jesus goes on.
See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
Matthew 6:28-30
Seek him, and he will cloth you with his peace.
What is happening at the moment in the world is not by the hand of God. It is by the hand of man. What is happening isn't something that's God sent. The first step to writing any of this, is to turn and deliberately put our trust back in God. God loves you, mankind, taken as the whole, does not.
Mankind is not a safe place to put your hope and trust. But God is. Because he loves you. He has since the beginning, and still today holds out his hand.
The prophet Joel said it beautifully.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love ...
Joel 2:13
Peace, peace to you, comes through meditating on this simple but beautiful truth. God loves you. More than you could imagine.