God is love.

How gently He whispers and calls us back to Him by name even when we have failed.

A little girl at Target nearly ran out into the street, away from her mother, trying to venture out on her own. Her mother, irritated, pulled her back into her realm of safety by tugging on her shirt. And the little girl moved back into her mother's grasp where she was back, safe and sound.

God loves us. So much. And I believe He treats us just like that little girl was treated by her mother. The only difference is that He does not get irritated. Even when we fail a million times and disobey Him one countless moment after the next, He never stops desiring to pull us back in to His reigns to protect us, and shield us from the many further bad mistakes we would otherwise make on our own.

His love never fails. It is righteous, uplifiting, unending, relentless. It is fail-proof. Yet we resist it, we resist Him, over and over and over again. Why? Often when we pull loose from the grip of His touch, He lets us go so that we can realize through our own mistakes and failures, that we cannot survive it alone. And then there He is, pulling us right back in to where we belong again, time after time after time again. He loves doing that. He takes pride and joy in it.

His love is powerful. It can consume us and overwhelm us, if we let it.

His love is not dependent on our actions, it is dependent on His grace. It is not given, or received, because of something good we did or a certain way we felt. It is endless, timeless, and available for the taking whenever we need it.

As Margaret Feinberg said in church today, love does not travel alone, either. It has friends: joy, grace, peace, etc. And when we begin to let love in, it's friends follow it and replace things like fear, anger, and control.

His love is free. And it is far better than the love we can find and receive anywhere else. Celebrate His love today - be redeemed, renewed, and revived knowing that He loves you. And He will always love you.

Let us all live through His love by knowing how great it is. How vast it is. How wide it is. And that it is not dependent on what we do, but by how we chose to let it in.