High tea has got to be one of my favourite things of all time! I think it’s just a fancy way of declaring my love for cupcakes and a hot cuppa…but what a good excuse for pretty décor and a chance to be spoilt. My bestie’s church held a ladies high tea meeting a while ago, and spoilt we were! Before we indulged in all the cakey goodness, guest speaker Jaci Mun-Gavin spoke to us about God’s extravagant love. It was so interesting to hear about God’s love for us from a mother’s perspective, and as a mom of six (how did she still look so gorgeous!?), she’s definitely an expert on love! These are a few things that popped out at me during Jaci’s talk:

1.       God’s heart must be MAAASSSIVE!

When Jaci had her first child she thought, “How could I possibly love another child as much as I love this one?” and then she had her second, and instead of her love dividing, it was as if her heart grew in size enough to love each child with as much of that extravagant love that she had for her first. She likened it to God’s love for us; that His love isn’t divided between all of us, but rather his heart must be so massive that he has enough love to make each and every one of us feel absolutely special and complete.

2.       God wants all His kids at home.

She spoke about how when her and her family leave church, people joke and ask her if she’s sure she’s got all the kids. Of course she wouldn’t be happy to arrive home with 5 out of 6! And that’s how God feels about each one of us. Just because he has some of his kids in relationship with him, doesn’t mean that He’s not longing for the others. He says it over and over in Luke 15. He compares himself to a shepherd who has 100 sheep and loses one. He says in verse 3,

“Does he not leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

And then just in case we don’t quite get what he’s on about he gives us two more examples in the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son. It’s clear that God wants all his kids with him.

3.       God waits for us like the groom waits for his bride.

Isaiah 62:5 says “as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” Can we even fathom that kind of love? We’ve all been at a wedding and watched the groom, so nervous as he awaits his bride. And when he sees her he’s beaming with a heart full of joy and excitement.  The entire room can see these two love eachother with their whole hearts, and that’s how God waits for each one of us, with joy, excitement and absolute adoration.

4.       We are changed when we realise the fullness of God’s love.  

Jaci put it so well that as women, we’re often quick to rebut a compliment from someone, or question whether the people in our lives really love us as much as they say they do. This kind of thinking and insecurity can absolutely affect the way we see God’s love for us. We may believe He has that kind of love for a leader in church, or someone smarter or more beautiful. But do we really know that God has that kind of extravagant love for us? I think it’s a process of continuously renewing the mind with God’s Word, reading and speaking about just how much he loves us, meditating on it over and over until it becomes part of our hearts and who we are. We must begin to define ourselves by God’s love.

There WILL BE change when we realise God’s love for us, because when we are filled with His unconditional love, we look at other people differently, we look at our life’s purpose differently, and we look at ourselves differently. My prayer for you and I is that we not only begin to see ourselves the way God sees us, but we begin to see others the way God sees them.