It doesn’t seem right at first.
Is God playing favorites?
Does He really love one and think less of another?
Why?
A puzzling situation happened in 2 Samuel.
A second son was born to King David and his wife Bathsheba.
A lot of ugliness had happened before this,
but David had repented and found peace with God.
That’s what David named the child. Solomon. Peace.
But God gave the boy a different name.
Jedidiah. Beloved of the Lord.
You see, God loved this child.
My gut reaction is to question Him and His love.
Do you mean You didn’t love David and Bathsheba’s first child?
Did this baby somehow earn Your love in a way another child couldn’t?
I start thinking about all the other possibilities,
Fixating on degrees of love,
And end up missing the main point.
God loved him.
Period.
God doesn’t tell us why.
Just that He loved him.
Then it dawns on me.
He loves me, too.
Period.
I haven’t done anything to earn His love.
In fact, I what I have done should garner the exact opposite reaction from Him.
But God’s love is not contingent on me and my actions.
He loves because of who He is.
My name might as well be Jedidiah.
And yours, too.
Because God deeply cherishes each one of us.
He so loved the world.
If you’re questioning His love for you,
Look up the word “Beloved” in the Bible and read about it.
It’s peppered all thoughout.
That’s because of who He is:
Love.
So let’s love Him today, who first loved us.
I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.
Jedidiah
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