How Do You Know He Loves You?

        One of my favorite kid's movies is "Enchanted".  I love the character Amy Smart plays as "Giselle" and how she is so naive and prone to break out in song (maybe this is because I was told growing up that I was a bit naive, and as my girls will attest, I often break out in song...although my voice is nowhere near as lovely as Giselle's). One of my favorite montages of the movie is the song "How Do You Know?"  It's a lovely little ditty about showing the love of your life that you care.
        I was recently reminded of the concept of showing your love for God from a dear friend. If we fall in love with anyone, we certainly will show this by the lives we lead. We start dressing differently to impress them. We become interested over night in whatever they really love to know them better. It is no different in our love for God. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." ( John 14:15) Because we love Him, we will naturally want to please Him. There, however, is a world of difference between doing something out of love for God versus trying to do something to earn God's love.
         "There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you less." This is one of the most beautiful concepts taught at the event called the Great Banquet.  It is based on the concept of God loving us unconditionally...which is taught in I John 4:19 that talks about us loving Him because He first loved us and in Romans 5. Verse 8 in Romans talks about God showing His love for us by Christ dying for us while we were still sinners. We didn't have to be "cleaned" up to be loved.
         My dad was a pastor and felt very strongly about his beliefs, as most pastors do. He took Deuteronomy 22:5 to mean that women should not wear pants, so I never owned a pair of pants till after he died, when I was a teenager.  My mom honored his conviction their entire marriage even though she didn't share it.  My mom and my dad were both raised Amish (although neither ever joined the Amish church), so they were used to being different from everyone else. They didn't live with electricity or automobiles ...it was kerosene lamps and buggies for them.
        I, on the otherhand, struggled with being different. All I ever wanted growing up was to fit in. I remember hating going to the mall and feeling that everyone was staring at me because I was wearing coolots instead of shorts like everyone else. (If you are unfamiliar with coolots, think seriously bell-bottomed shorts...they came into favor again about seven years ago, but I couldn't bring myself to purchase any). I'm sure some of this was imagined, but not all of it. I knew I was different, and I didn't feel like it was a positive thing back then. When my dad died, I was 13; and I grieved his death horribly. I adored my dad! I do remember feeling a little relieved though when after he died my mom said that she saw nothing wrong with wearing pants or jeans as long as it was feminine. The letter of that Old Testament law might have prohibited pants, but the spirit of the law was to only prohibit manly attire. I doubt my husband thinks I look manly in my jeans. Do you, honey?
       The problem I have with a literal adherance to every law in the Old Testament is the sheer volume of the laws. How do you decide which to keep? If you decide to keep one, doesn't that mean you should keep them all? Aren't they all equally important? Well then, we would need to sew blue tassels on the corner of our garments (Numbers 15:38) and not mix linen with wool (Duet 22:11). Who can actually remember all of them let alone keep them? There is also a tendency with rule keeping to feel that we are somehow earning our way into heaven (which was one of my mom's biggest beefs against the Amish church). Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states that it is by grace that we are saved (which is God's gift), not through works, "lest any man should boast". We should follow rules out of love for God, not to score brownie points with God.
        How do I know God loves me?  Well as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans sing, "The Bible Tells Me So" (which was one of my favorite songs from my childhood). Don't take my word for it. Read it and you'll know too.