WHAT an expression of love we have before us in this picture! The older girl caressing the younger. The birds having been fed and they ate evidently so accustomed to such a meal that they are perfectly at ease although close to the little girl.
Ah, dear children, how good it is to be dwelling together in this way, making each other happy, and delighting in doing good for others.
The way in which this can be accomplished in us, is by first knowing the love of God to us as expressed in the gift of His Son and then meditating upon it and enjoying it in our own souls.
Have you, dear children, thought of the great love of God for you? How He looked down from heaven on the people of this world and pitied them in their sinful and helpless condition? And as that was true of all, it is true of you. Oh, think of what God has clone in expressing His great love for us. He had One Son, who was with Him from all eternity, and God had all His joy in Him, but His love was so great for us that rather than leave us in our sins and at a distance from Him, He sent that only Son —the Lord Jesus—down into this world. and He became like one of us, only no sin in Him, and He did that, so as to bear the awful punishment due to us for all our sins. He went willingly to that cross, to have God charge Him with our sins, and God sent Him for that purpose, so under the load of all our sins He was separated from God, because sin and holiness could not dwell together, and He cried out then, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Is not that wonderful love of God for us, to have Him stand in the place that would have been ours forever? We might well say —how could God love us so much, and the Lord Jesus, too, to be willing to take our place?
May our hearts respond, dear children, and seek now to live for Him, and manifest that love to others, too.
“HEREIN IS LOVE, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US, AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US, WE OUGHT ALSO TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.” 1 John 4:10, 1110Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (1 John 4:10‑11).
ML 03/18/1906