Neverending: An Essay on God's Love

I just finished watching an episode of my favorite tv series, The Forgotten. I was just blown away.

*Spoiler Alert* 
Like I said above, this last episode just rocked my world. Throughout the season hints have been dropped here and there of the whereabouts of the Alex Donovan's, the lead character's, daughter. We come to learn that she was taken when she was young and has been missing now for about three years. Alex has become a part of the forgotten network which investigates unidentified deaths, jane and john does. Possibly thinking that through his searching he might learn about what has happened to his daughter.

Fast forward to this week's show. A little girl's body is found inside a large ammo box on an abandoned plot of land. After a sketch artist draws up a representation of her face, Alex is shocked to see that the picture looks just like his daughter. He's excited to have possibly found her, and he is devastated at the thought of finally losing her forever.

Through a series of events the team discovers that the murdered girl is not his daughter. Alex is resigned to continue to hope against hope that someday his daughter will come back to him. Once the girl is identified and her murderer found, Alex drives to give the news of the death to the victims mother. He never could have expected what he found upon his arrival. His little girl, missing for three years was living with this woman he had come to comfort.

His daughter has been lied to for the past three years, told that her parents had died and that this woman was to take care of her. She isn't sure what to believe anymore. The story comes to a close and he is finally able to take his daughter home with him. After all his time of seeking, the two are finally reunited.

So what's the point?
Alex's love for his daughter painted for me an image of how Christ loves each and every one of us. Like her, we have all bee stolen away by the enemy, Satan. We have bought in to the lie that we belong to this world. As we live ignorant of the truth, God is looking for us. He is waiting for his kids to come home. Even when we seem to be as far away from God as we can get, he still comes for us. Like the story of the prodigal son, he is running as he first glimpses us on the horizon.

Isn't that beautiful? That picture should remind us just how much the Father loves us. We take that for granted by blowing verses like John 3:16 out of proportion. It's become so vague that we don't really resonate with its message very much these days. The truth still remains.

We are all lost in the darkness. We are slaves to sin, unrighteous by birth. But God loves us. In order to bring us back to him he sent his one and only son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. His bloody death on the cross was the final sacrifice, making us right with God if we choose to accept his death for our own. Romans 5:8 sums up God's love so well saying this: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 


Friends, let us not look lightly on this unwarranted love. God's love for us in unwavering and pure, astronomically beyond anything we could ever be worthy of. Take a minute now and just look in wonder at the extraordinary love that Christ has for you. You are made in God's image. You are God's child. He loves you. Daddy wants his kids back.


-matt