Who does God love?

What a child can teach us about God and love

I’d just finished reading Eloise, my seven year-old daughter, her bedtime story last night when she started to sing a little made-up song softly in my ear. It went like this:

God loves Daddy.
God loves Mummy.
God loves Eloise.
God loves Imogen.
God loves Molly (our dog).
God loves everyone.

It made me so happy. No, not that I was top of the list! But that she cannot fathom the idea of a God whose love doesn’t include everyone.

No one is outside of the love of God.

I hope she never loses this. Whatever layers of theological understanding get added throughout her life, I pray this foundation is never lost.

Tragically, all too often, religion ends up taking sides.

Us or them.
In or out.
Believer or non-believer.

Not for Eloise: rich or poor, black or white, Christian or Muslim, gay or straight—it makes no difference in her simple understanding that, if God is love, that love would have no boundaries.

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Image: Jared EronduIceland