God says "How do I love thee, Let me count the ways" (March 2026)

As we approach Good Friday, I thought this would be a great time to reflect on the many ways God shows us how much He loves us:

1) God shows his love to us in creation in designing us to enjoy it

For our eyes to enjoy : Sunsets, Mountains  // For our ears to enjoy : Sound of waves coming in, hummingbird, etc.

For our nose to enjoy: Smell of flowers, cookies baking, etc. // For our mouths to enjoy: Chocolate, Pizza, wonderful tastes

For our touch to enjoy: Soft blanket, petting a cat, etc.

 Psalms 107:8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind

2) God shows in creation we are uniquely special to God: God gave you unique

Fingerprints, DNA, Retina as a sign that God loves you. Not you as 1 of 7 billion people, but you specifically.

3) In the Bible, God reveals we are special to God and created in His Image

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

4) God reveals He created all of this out of love for us and He wanted a place of dignity for us

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the

earth.”

5) God loves us enough that He wanted us to have the freedom to love Him back or reject Him. He provided a choice:

 Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

6) God loves everyone in this world and desires to save everyone:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

7) God loved us even before we were born

Psalms 139:13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

Did you know God out of love thinks about you more often then you can even count? How encouraging is that?

8) God loves us enough to discipline us and call us to repentance

1^st sermon Jesus preached was repent (Mark 1:14-15), 1^st sermon He had his disciples preach was repent. (Mark 6:12)

Hebrews 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives

9) God loves us despite our struggle with sin

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

10) God loves us enough to truly forgive us when we repent

David was an adulterer and Murderer and yet when He repented and asked God to forgive him, God kept him on as King and refers to David as a man after Gods own heart, He says He will show people grace on account of His servant David and speaks in terms of respect. Jesus often links himself back to David.

Psalms 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

11) Gods love radically transform our lives

Paul went around murdering Christians, God loved him enough to confront him on the road to Damascus but then to forgive him and make Paul his lead servant who through the Holy Spirits inspiration wrote half the new testament, including this

passage on the very definition of Love from Gods perspective:

1 Cor 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

12) God loves his worst enemies and those who despise him and calls us to do the same

World: If you love and respect me, I will love and respect you

Jesus:

Matthew 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

13) God did not spare His own Son for us out of love for us and nothing can separate us from Gods love

Romans 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Conclusion: Gods very nature is love. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are so alike in thought, purpose, ability, etc. that Jesus said if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. They are in perfect unity of love and have loved each other for all eternity past, and Now, God desires a personal relationship with each of us as He wants to shower us with His love. How exciting is that?

Happy Easter to you and your family. May this be a time to celebrate God’s amazing love for us as we reflect on what Jesus did out of love for us.