Maybe

you have read about or seen heart-wrenching pictures of orphanages in

some countries where babies lie unattended in their cribs, crying

piteously in unchanged diapers. No one plays with them, hugs them,

kisses them, or coos at them. The workers are overburdened and

overwhelmed and don’t know what to do.

Ezekiel

16 includes a striking allegory about Jerusalem in its miserable

plight: “On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were

you washed. . . . No one looked on you with pity. . . .

You were despised. Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your

blood, and . . . I said to you, ‘Live!’ I made you grow

like a plant of the field. . . . You became mine”

(Ezekiel 16:4-8).

That

is what 1 John 3:1 is talking about when it says, “See what

great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called

children of God!” Or, as Paul put it, “In love he predestined us

for adoption. . . .” If God had left us in our

sinful state, we would have died. And today, because God has put his

Spirit in us, we can live for him.

Because

of his love for us, we can turn away from sin. Believing in Christ,

we are washed, and we live in his love. We are cherished. God becomes

our loving Father. He loves and disciplines us as his children, and

we live in his family forever. What a beautiful picture of the

tenderness of our God!