Daily Manna · Day 276 · October 3
Loved as Jesus Is Loved
“Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
The first hymn many children learn is "Jesus loves me, this I know." Notice that the song is in the present tense. Nobody sings that Jesus loved them only on the days they behaved. The song is plain, and it does not hand out grades.
In John 17, Jesus is praying aloud on the night before He dies, with His disciples there to hear Him. He asks that the world may know "thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." The word doing all the work is "as." It does not describe a smaller love of the same kind, kept in a smaller cup. It is the same love the Father has for His Son. Jesus also puts it in the past tense, "hast loved," which means it was already settled before any of the men listening had done a thing to deserve it. It was settled before three of them fell asleep on Him later that night in the garden.
So the children's song was right all along. God's love for you is present tense, with no grade attached, and it does not change for the version of you that failed on Tuesday. It may be the hardest sentence in the New Testament to believe, and yet it is simple enough for a child to sing.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 276 is A Little Fire (James 3:5).