Wednesday, February 9

We love because he first loved us.
—1 John 4:19

Back in the 1980s I was in search of a new dog. Scanning the papers, I lit on an ad for a free dog—a “German Shepherd mix,” it said. When I got to the house, there was this brown hound dog that went tearing around the room and then plunked himself on top of my foot, leaning up against my leg with a look that said, “I love you, take me home.” Perhaps his great uncle’s cousin on his mother’s side had once seen a German Shepherd, but a “German Shepherd mix” he was not. I did, however, take him home.

I really wanted a German Shepherd, since the dog I had recently lost was part Shepherd. I didn’t start out loving that floppy brown imposter—in fact I was disappointed and somewhat angry at the false advertising. But after basking in the love of that sweet dog for about five minutes, I was hooked. I loved him because he loved me first.

It may seem like a mundane example, but I think our love of God is like that. We don’t necessarily start out desiring what we first see in God. We would rather have a God where we can call the shots and have things the way we want them. The reality of God can seem, at times, like false advertising.

But then we truly meet. We experience the overwhelming love of God and see the blessings that have been poured out at our feet, and we are won over. We love God because God first loves us. We are not convinced, we are wooed.

Love isn’t something that we think ourselves into or that we manufacture on our own. It is awakened in us…it is a response to something greater than ourselves. Often that something is not what we thought it would be. And yet we know it when it touches our hearts, when we meet the One in whose image we were created.

Hound of Heaven, pursue us until we love you. Amen.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2006.