We are loved.

It is not a love we earned or have done something to deserve. And it is not a love between equals. But we are loved. And when we live as ones loved, in and through Jesus Christ, nothing can ultimately steal our joy.

Joachim Neander lived from 1650 to 1680. He wrote many hymns, including one known today by the English title of “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.” He wrote that beloved hymn in the final year of his relatively short life. Years later, when the hymn was translated into English, one translator chose the wording, “ponder anew: what the Almighty can do, Who with His love doth befriend,” while another translator decided on, “ponder anew: what the Almighty can do, if with His love He befriends thee.”

I am not fluent in Neander’s original language, so I cannot say which is more accurate according to that original penned line. But in consideration of the English variations, both are true.

The Almighty, for His part, does love us. It is in His nature to love, and He is love (1 John 4:16). He formed us and named us before time began (Psalm 139:13-16). Before we had any inclination of what love might be, He was already loving us. And even now, if we think we have begun to recognize His great love for us, we start to see more and more that we only see and understand Him dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12). We try to grasp His love for us — even try to emulate it. But how can we, when it is so vast and wide and pure and great? We cannot — according to any standard of perfection. And yet, He loves us still.

This love given is an unparalleled one. I asked my Chinese-speaking students once, as I was starting to learn more Mandarin, if I could use their term “ren ai” to describe the love between two people. They got kind of a strange look on their faces and said, “Oh, no. That kind of love is so high and great, like mercy and goodness shining out on the one who never deserved it. If we are honest, no person can really love like that.” Indeed.

God’s love for us and friendship with us is like the love of a well-balanced parent for an obnoxious toddler — only infinitely grander.

However, back to the second translation choice, the “if” is also reality. God loves every single person He’s ever made. But we do not all love Him, in the limited way we are able, while we live and breathe. First and foremost, we are separated from Him because of the unholy things we have done. And the only way to be made holy so that we can try to love Him and receive His love more fully again is to accept the gift of Christ’s sacrifice through faith. This is the “if”: if we hear about the good news of God’s gift to cover our unholiness, and if we embrace that gift in our own soul by believing…then, we move from ones being simply loved by the One who made us to ones who are befriended and capable of drawing near to the Him (Titus 3:3-7).

And when we see how we are loved and we taste of God’s goodness in His presence, we will often be drawn back into the wonder of what God has done, what He is doing, and what He may yet do as we are who we are, standing in the light of that love. (See Psalm 34:8, 84:4, and 86:11-15.)

Be who you are. Be loved.