How Will They Know?

 Children of God Love One Another

See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 JOHN 3:1 AMP

It is God's love that gives us the name child of God. We are called by that name, and by the Name that calls us to love one another: Jesus. We are counted among the children of God because we are saved by grace.

As believers, we may be feeling the gravity of this world and the cost of following Christ, being misunderstood for our faith, just as Jesus was.

So how will they know?

How does the world know the Father if his children don't look like him? How will they know apart from our love?

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” JOHN 13:34-35

I have had the privilege of being part of a group of young moms who meet weekly with our kiddos for playtime and fellowship. This small group has been a surprising source of hope as we share together in the journey of motherhood.

When my daughter was just eighteen months old I experienced first hand the value of this tight-knit community of like minded women. At that time, I had an unfortunate dental emergency that resulted in a severe abscess in my lower jaw. Before I knew it, I found myself in the emergency room having a procedure to drain the abscess to prevent the infection from spreading throughout my body.

I reached out to the women in the mommy group for support. This family of women wrapped around me to love on me, bringing me meals, offering to watch my baby, and even making the connections to the right dental specialists.

Never had I experienced such purity of purpose to come around another in true Christian charity. They hardly knew me, and yet these women not only welcomed me as a mom, but they virtually washed my feet, just as Christ had instructed his disciples at the last supper.

This is the true eucharisteo.

There has been a lot of talk going around about the "mommy wars". This toxic game of competition among women for how to mother best. Gossip and division are like poison that if not eliminated quickly spreads throughout the body and makes us sick.

I am pleased to say this has not been my experience in my mom's group. It is a blessed bunch of women who just love Jesus, and because of this, they take on his appearance through the small selfless acts of service that define a follower of Christ.

Really, we don't have to try very hard, either. Once you have experienced the rare gift of grace expressed through the hands of a sister bringing a meal, or coming over to watch your kids when you're sick, you see the Body of Christ--love with skin on--and you know. This is what love looks like. And if God is love, then this is how we know Him.

Has anyone ever given you a gift like that? How did you respond? Have you ever responded with I'm not worth it or I don't deserve it?

If you have ever said, I don't deserve to be loved, then you need to hear this one truth. You do. For God so loved the world. God so loves you, that he gave his One and Only to be with you. My daughter teaches me daily about this kind of love. I love her because she is my child. Period. And I would go to the ends of the earth for her, no matter her choices, nothing can ever make me stop loving her.

God's love is the cause of a mission so great, that in the balance of justice and righteousness, he saw you and he gave Jesus. He did this just so he could rightly call you his child. You are the reason Jesus came to live and die and raise again, to give you eternal life with him. If we are to say "I am not worth it", then we may as well say Jesus isn't worth it.

I can't wrap my head around that kind of love! In my humanness I don't understand it, and too many times I have said I don't deserve it. But this is grace: we don't deserve--we can never earn--but God loves. It's who He is.

The thing is, you do deserve that kind of love, because God is love, meaning it is his attribute, and he created you to be loved, Beloved. You are the object of his affection. Loved is who you are. And if we start living like we know who we are, and whose we are, then they will know who He is.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 JOHN 3:1