I’ve been listening to a lot of Christian radio lately.
So much so that it’s not even a conscious decision anymore. In the same way I used to flip between channels looking for eighties music, now my fingers seem to have a mind of their own, seeking out Gospel, Praise, Rock, Inspirational or any variation of Christian music.
Most of the music is new to me. Some is familiar from church, but most is new and a treat in its newness. But the other day, I heard a song that was not new to me. Before I recognized it as something I had heard before, my heart was already stirring. This peace fell over me.
Where had I heard this song before?
And then I remembered. Wynonna Judd sang “Testify to Love” on an episode of Touched by an Angel.
I was a huge Touched by an Angel fan in college. It definitely spoke to me, definitely reached a part of me that was aching for some good news. It was a show that was unapologetically joyful and optimistic about the world.
And in virtually every episode, the angel Monica spoke these words, “God loves you.”
And it was those words that brought me to tears every Sunday night that I watched it.
God loves you.
Those words filled a very deep hole in my heart.
It’s a hole that each and every one of us has. It is a hole that has been dug out and beaten into us all our lives. Every time we’ve felt rejection. Every time the world has seemed dead set against us. Every failure. Every tear. Every word said in anger makes that hole a tiny bit bigger.
It is a hole that can only be filled with these words.
God loves you.
Everything else—it doesn’t matter, because God—loves—you.
The other day in my blog, I wrote about that first meeting between Peter and Jesus. I wrote about how Peter must have felt when Jesus first looked at him because when Jesus looks at you, he sees everything you were, are and ever will be.
I wrote how I had seen that look in others over the course of my life, but when I thought about it, really thought about, I realized I had seen that look more than just a few times.
That look that Jesus gave his disciples—it was love, pure love.
And we can witness this same love—we can see Jesus’ love—when a mother holds her new baby, when a couple says their wedding vows, when a child plays with a puppy.
It is unconditional love. It is the essence of who God is.
God loves you.
And like the song says, “For as long as I shall live, I will testify to love. I’ll be a witness in the silences when words are not enough.”
