Logos -- John 3:1-16

When I was young -- eight, maybe -- I was asked to read John 3:1-16 in our church service. I remember practicing, I remember reading it. I didn't understand it, but I do remember liking verse 16. I read it from the Good News Bible -- I know that, because the pastor signed the I used and gave it to me as a gift (we should do that).

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

As I child, I liked the idea that God loves us -- not just a little bit, but a whole lot. That's a good message to remember, I think.

As adults, and I'm not saying that this is bad, we get very involved in trying to understand the whole story. What does it mean to be born again? What does it mean to hear the sound that wind makes, but to not know from where it is coming or where it is going? What does that have to do with God? Why was Nicodemus so literal? What does a bronze snake have to do with Jesus? There are all kinds of questions we can ask.

I do wonder, though, if we get so caught up in the details that we miss the message that an eight year old understood. God loves us, not just a little bit, but a whole lot. Maybe that's part of having the faith of a child.

It had never occurred to me before today that God could have sent Jesus in anger -- we really do sin all the time, and it would have been justified. He could have sent Jesus to bring justice -- sometimes we really need justice, in our sinful world. It never occurred to me before today, and I've read that passage many times.

Perhaps it never occurred to me because I know that God loves us, not a little bit, but a whole lot. To be incarnated into our world for any other reason than his love for us is against his nature.

Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so.