I SUPPOSE you are like other little boys and girls, fond of being first, and of saying, I did it first, or, I saw it first. But have you ever thought who LOVED first?
A little boy named Willie was very ill. One Sunday evening he heard at his bed room window the sounds coming from an open air gospel meeting that was being held nearby. Then Willie wanted his mother to go and ask one of the preachers if he would come up and sing to him the verses: “I love Jesus, Hallelujah.”
So one of these servants of the Lord went and saw Willie, and sang the words to please him. But afterwards the kind visitor explained that it would be happier for Willie if he were to think who loved FIRST.
It is not because we love Jesus that He loves us; or that God loves us because we love Him. O, no! “We love Him, as the Scripture says, “because He FIRST loved us.” (1 John 4:19.) “God is love, and “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
From time to time such precious truths as these were read to Willie, who listened to them, and believed them. He believed that God indeed sent Jesus; and one day, on his mother suddenly speaking to him, he replied, “Mother, I am with Jesus;” showing thus that he really loved the company of the Son of God who “FIRST loved” Willie.
ML 03/31/1918