Have you ever asked yourself, “Why does God love you?” I have, many times over. I am not worthy of His love, yet He still chooses to love me no matter what, why is this so?

To begin with I have lied, cheated and much more, yet God is so merciful that He still doesn’t take that all in account, He still loves me. I can’t understand it. Let’s look together to see why?

In the book of Genesis, God started in the beginning to create the earth and everything within it. Then He decided to create us. He create mankind. Genesis 1: 26 says, “And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Everything up to this point God spoke it into existence, but here in the passage of Scripture, He says, “Let (Us) make man (Mankind) in our own image.” As you can see I put parenthesis around us and mankind. There are two important thing to remember when you read the Bible, “US” refers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the word “man” refers to “MANKIND.” If we were to re-read the verse of Scripture again it may sound something like this, “Let the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, make mankind in their image. This is a gesture of love that goes beyond all meaning, to be able to understand that our God loves us so very much that He would create us in His image. To make us have His character, demeanor, compassion, and to have all of these attributes. No other part of creation had this privilege, not even the angels that served Him had such an honor.

Of course we blew it! We had everything going well for us, but instead of loving God by honoring His word, we rebelled and sinned against Him. We gave our inheritance of power and authority to Satan. Was God through with us? No, He began the plan to restore us back into His presence. To make us righteous again before Him, so that we could once again take on all His attributes, His character, His compassion and His love. To once again take dominion over all of creation. A lot of hope was there, but God was hopeful. Meanwhile the devil was having a heyday, he was causing mayhem all over the earth, and people were turning away from God and they were doing their own thing. Mankind were lovers of themselves and they engaged in all kinds of evil practices. God looked at mankind and He was sorry and vowed to destroy mankind, but He would be going against His plan for redemption, so he searched the earth and looked for someone that was loyal to Him and He found Noah. I know that you know the story, of how God had Noah build an Ark and mankind was spared while all the evil was wiped out. Not a real good story to tell our children right? God had a plan, and the devil didn’t know what it was.

In the top of the Ark was a widow that when opened it was used to see the sky. After the rains ceased and the earth was flooded, Noah would take two birds, a raven and a dove and send them from the Ark throughout the earth. The raven went out but never returned, but the dove found no place to rest and returned to the Ark. Noah pulled the dove back in and closed the window. What happened to the Raven? It is believed that the raven found places to rest.

Some say that the “raven” represented Satan and the “dove” represented the Holy Spirit. I am not sure, but if that is the case it would serve for us to look at the Ark as heaven. Satan left heaven and never returned, but he did gain the earth and there was plenty of places for him to rest, dead things, floating caucuses and bodies. Whereas, the Holy Spirit had no place to rest at this time except for heaven, for it wasn’t time for Him to go to the earth.

As you know, the dove was sent out within seven days and this time He returned with an olive branch in it’s beak, signaling that there was dry land for Noah and his family. Olive branches as does olive oil represents the Holy Spirit.

God blessed Noah and his family, but even though He did this again God saw mankind being brought back into sin, but this didn’t deter God from His plan. The devil continued causing mayhem, and the destruction of men’s souls and he kept stealing the word of God from their hearts. God still had a plan and then as years went by and God listened to people cry out to Him for help, He sent Moses to free them from their bondage so that they could worship Him. As you know this story as well, God delivered Israel from the hands of the Egyptians and tried to get them to understand how much love He had for them, but again mankind was corrupted by sin and so instead of taking God’s hand as Moses was willing to do, they instead, wanted to have the law and yes that was when the Ten Commandments were composed. They chose to have a law of sin and death instead of taking the hand of God and receiving redemption.

This bring us to the greatest thing about God’s love for us, when He sent His Son Jesus to us. When Jesus was born, the devil knew that God was up to something, so he tried to destroy Jesus when He was young. Jesus escaped the devil every time. When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River what happened? Let’s look at this together, because it is very important for us to see what happened? Luke 3:21-22 says, “Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, ‘Thou art My beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased,'” I want you to look close to the part of the dove descending upon Jesus. The dove left heaven and this time He found a place to rest. Do you remember the Ark? Noah sent the dove out from the Ark but it returned because it had no place to rest. Now the dove (Holy Ghost) leaves heaven and goes to the earth and rests on Jesus. The Holy Spirit of God rested upon His Son Jesus and after this Jesus begins His ministry of declaring that the love of God is available for all who call for it. Jesus comes and as you know He performs miracles, signs, and wonders within the earth. He is betrayed, crucified and dies. But this is not the end, know God’s plan was being fulfilled. Jesus is raised from the grave and he defeats Satan and He restores mankind to God’s presence. You see the greaatest act of love that God performed for us, was giving up His only son and having Him take all the sins of mankind uppon Himself so that we could be restored to right Standing before God Almighty. It was so that we were no longer seperated from God’s presence. It was done so that you and I can know that we are loved and that we are no more orphans serving the devil, but that we are children of God. We are blessed and we are favored.

I know what you’re thinking, I thought just like you. How can God love me so much that He would want me so much that He would give up His own Son so that I could be redeemed of all sin. After all I have done atrocious things since the day I was born. Family may forsake you, friends may not want you around, and people in general may hate you, but God never did nor does He now. His love for us greater than all of that. My friends it is all because of what Jesus di for us that we can be loved so very much. You know what this was God’s plan all along. The devil might of won a battle or two but God won the war.

As for him, the devil I mean, his time is coming and I have looked at the end of the Bible and his fate doesn’t look to good. If you are feeling like I was then know this, you too, can have this wonderful relationship with God and experience your rightful place with Him. You are loved!

What happened to the dove and where did it rest after Jesus went to be with the Father? He is still on the earth and now he rests on each one of God’s children. That’s right the Holy Spirit rests on each one of us. This story will have to wait until another time or you can read it for yourself in Acts Chapter Two.

Be blessed

If you accept this say Amen.