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As we meditate on John 3:16, we see that Jesus makes it clear God loves the world! He loves you and me and everyone! As a Christ follower, we understand that God truly loves us.

When my son was about four years old, I was putting him to bed one night when he asked if I would snuggle with him. Of course, my mother’s heart melted. I climbed into bed and snuggled up to Sean. We said prayers and Sean drifted off to sleep. While I laid in that bed, I continued talking to God. I told God that I knew my brain was human and could not truly understand all the vastness of His great love. However, could I get a glimpse of what the “so” meant in “God so loved the world”? No joke, laying there I heard God whisper to my heart, “Would you snuggle with me?”

It made a huge impact on my life to this very day! We go through life even as Christ followers and still have baggage or damage that seems unrepairable. Some of us take a long time to truly understand God’s love for us. I think many of us on the professional level of receiving Christ and His eternal salvation understand we are headed to heaven. We have been forgiven of our sins but think of God as a distant god.

God is not a distant God! According to the Word, God loves us so much that He sent his one and only son to pay the ransom for our sins that we could not pay. This love that is extended to the world was so that we could be with God. With him now and with him for all eternity. He made a way for us to be close to him.

Before Jesus died on the cross, laid in a tomb for three days, rose from the dead – we did not have full access to God. In fact, in the Old Testament, we learn that priests interceded on our behalf, through animal sacrifices and prayer. Once Jesus paid our price at Calvary that separation was over. No longer would we need to go through another to ap-proach God but were freed that very moment to be with God forever. Matthew 27:51 tells us that veil (that separated us from the inner temple of God) was torn in two from top to bottom…! We now had full access to God.

This week may we know that God is not distant but is with us in this life and in the life to come!

Yvette Perrin can be reached at theword2yvette@gmail.com.