I pursued my wife. I think I chased her until she simply surrendered in exhaustion. I was like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. In my mind, she was playing hard to get. You know, making me work a bit. What she really wanted was for me to initiate. She still does. 

Sometimes we forget that God loved us first. He initiated. Our relationship with God started because of God. We didn’t wise up after carefully weighing the pros and cons of following Christ. We didn’t chase after God like I chased after Melissa. We didn’t sprint our way to the Spirit. God loved us first. 

God didn’t love us because we were incredibly lovable. We didn’t win him over with our smile or sense of humor. We weren’t really all that attractive. As a matter of fact, we didn’t love God at all. Let that sink in for a second. We didn’t love God.

Scripture teaches that our sin separates us from God. It therefore seems logical that if reconciliation between God and man is going to happen, it should start with the offending party. That’s you and me. After all, we are the ones who caused the problem in the first place. This is how it works in the world. You offend me, hurt me, disappoint me, or sin against me and I’ll pull back and wait for an apology. But God knew if reconciliation was going to happen, it would have to start with him. And so, he initiated. While we were still separated, still lost in sin, he sent his Son—the perfect man—the only one whose death could satisfy our debt to sin and bring us to God.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

When our kids disobey, we may be tempted to say, “You go to your room and think about what you’ve done. When you’re ready to apologize you know where to find me. I’ll wait.” But God did not stand a distance and say, “I’ll wait.” God sent. God sent Jesus. God sent love.