And, He loves you so much that He wants for you to be with Him for all eternity. In fact, God loves you so much that He did (and still does) everything necessary so that possibility can happen, IF we choose it.
Many people today will discount this profound reality of God’s love for each of us simply because God wants us and does everything to help us choose Him. I liken that argument to someone telling a women that she should disregard the marriage proposal of a young man simply because he worked as hard as possible to ensure that the evening leading up to, and the proposal itself, is as beautiful and perfect as possible as he tried to express the profound depth of his passion, devotion and love for her, all expressed in his desire to spend every day for the rest of his earthly life sharing it with her. That’s just absurd. But that’s what we do to justify why we deny the reality of God’s love.
NO ONE should have to live in this world that has so much pain, suffering, anxiety and confusion without this knowledge of God’s love and tenderness for each one of His children, His beloved sons and daughters. Yes, beloved. Each of us are God’s beloved sons and daughters. We are loved. YOU are loved. Always and forever. No matter what we do, or don’t do. Yes, God REALLY loves you.
***For those of you familiar with the story about the actual letter sent by Virginia O’Hanlon to the editor of the New YorkSun back in 1897 and the subsequent unsigned editorial response that was the work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church, you probably recognize the play on words that I making with Mr Church’s response which was originally, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” Pasted below is the editorial response made by Mr Church to Virginia O’Hanlon, with my own editorial revisions italicized throughout. Enjoy, and yes, dear reader, God really DOES loves you.DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no God.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there God?
VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is God. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no God. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in God! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the Catholic churches of the world during Mass to try and catch God, but even if they did not see God coming down to the altar at the Consecration, what would that prove? Nobody sees God, but that is no sign that there is no God. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No God! Praise God He lives, and He lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, He will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. Yes, Virginia, there is a God, and He loves you beyond measure and for all eternity, and desires you to be with Him for all eternity. Believe in His love, and Say yes to His invitation, and God willing, I pray that we see each other someday at the eternal banquet table at the great Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
