Daisies are one of my favorite flowers. They remind me of a long-ago time secured in childhood innocence. As a young girl, I would pick a daisy from my grandmother’s garden and anxiously await as each petal revealed to me the truth about love. I would gently pluck off the first pure-white petal and say aloud, “He loves me.” I would then move to the next petal and say, “He loves me not.” I would continue this back-and-forth pattern, repeating each phrase one after the other, until the last petal remained. “He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me, He loves me not.”
Does the one I cherish more than anything return the same fondness? Would “He love me” at the pull of that last petal? Unfortunately, and more often than not, it didn’t end in my favor! I smile thinking how many daisies my grandmother must have allowed me to pull before, finally, the last petal confirmed, “He loves me!”
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3
Even at young age, our heart longs to know who we belong to. Whose am I? The answer to this question, the knowing that we belong to someone, helps formulate and answer the question, “Who am I?” Our ownership births our purpose; it is the essence of every human heart. Our greatest and deepest desire is to love and to be loved in return. It is how we are made. And despite what the world may threaten, our destiny in Him can never be taken away. Like Jeremiah says, God reaches toward us with kindness motivated by the exact deep and everlasting love we so crave. It is through this love that we are being rebuilt. God, our Father in Heaven, is eager to show us just what this real love looks like.
Friends, who do you belong to? Today, it is tempting to find our identity in the world around us; but, we are called to remember and to nurture our given identity in Christ. After all, we belong to Him! And unlike the petals of a daisy, He is the only one who can reveal the essence of pure love. We are the apple of His eye, the object of His affection. His love is all we need.
“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” John 14:8
As a child, my mind heard repeatedly about a God who loved me; but, it wasn’t until I was an adult that my heart was convinced of this supernatural love; and that, Friends, is what matters most. We have access to a God who never stops pursuing us; a God who redeems us and sets us free despite our shortcomings; a God who never leaves our side; a God who purchased us with His own blood so that we can live with Him for eternity. It is in Him that we are kept safe, protected, and like a petal, made pure. Why? Because, like each of you…
…He Loves Me
