In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that God loved us. Is this saying hard to believe because we are Americans (“there is no such thing as a free lunch”) or simply because we are human? For St. John the truth that we have God’s love unasked and unearned is the foundation of the spiritual life. We don’t need to say a prayer, go to church, keep one commandment — God loves us first, last and forever. The image we should have in our minds is a new born child being placed in her mother’s arms. The mother loves that child completely simply because that child is her child. God loves us simply because we are the children of God
