I was just now reading this verse and as I did I could imagine both the joy and the awe John must have felt as he wrote this. What a great and fantastic love this is, that we are called God's children!
I feel lately that I've been taking this for granted, forgetting just how much God loves me. The Lord is so good, yet I can still look at things so negatively and so hopelessly.
What ridiculous creatures we are, to be able to go from one emotional extreme to the other so quickly. Praise Jesus He is not this way. James says that in Him there is no variation or shifting shadow, and Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Then, in 1st John 2:28, we are told to "...abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming".
I can do nothing to give myself any lasting happiness or joy, for everything that I do disappears as soon as I get it, but in Jesus there is such a wonderful and lasting hope that I can't help but grab onto every bit of it. What an awesome and glorious God we serve, who loves these filthy sinners so much that He cleans them right up and calls them His children!
