Written by Johany Moise

That’s a statement I’ve been trying to wrap my head around for a while now. 

Honestly, I don’t know why it’s so hard. 

How can it not be true, yet feel so foreign? 

Someone who loves me even when I don’t love myself. I could never comprehend it with certainty, because I’m not sure I even understand what love really means. 

When you commit the same sin over and over again, and all you see when you look in the mirror is guilt and shame, it’s hard to believe you’re still loved. But he sees His daughter, the one He made in His image, and He’s just waiting for you to see yourself the way He sees you. 

His. 

His love for us goes beyond our understanding. And I know how hard that is to accept, trust me I know. But even so, I’ll keep running back to Him. After every sin and every mistake, I’ll run back to His open arms. 

What I’m realizing lately is that loving someone requires forgiveness. He’s forgiven me more times than I deserve, yet the truth is, I haven’t forgiven myself, because deep down, I don’t think I deserve that kind of love. 

He knows you’re hurting, even when the wounds and scars aren’t visible. He knows that when you think about all you’ve been and what you’ve done failure rises first, but when He looks at you, He sees grace. 

He’s trying to show you that the love He offers isn’t fragile or conditional. It’s the kind of love meant to wash it all away. 

His blood. 

His cross. 

The one He bore with you in mind. 

The one He was nailed to so you could be free from what you see when you look in the mirror. He’s just waiting for you to understand that He would do it all again, that’s how much He loves you. 

Sometimes it’s easier to say,no, He doesn’t love me, why would He love a sinner like me? Or,if He really knew my past, He wouldn’t love me. 

Peter denied Jesus three times. And when Jesus rose again, He still called for him by name. But that’s the part that still amazes me. 

He formed you in your mother’s womb, knowing everything you would do, everything you would say, everything you would become, and still chose the cross. 

His death made room for the grace your past has been aching for. The love your hardened heart has been waiting for to soften it. Not because you were perfect. Not because you had it all together. 

But because His love was never dependent on who you would be. 

You know that moment in Grey’s Anatomy when Burke tells Cristina, “You are the most competitive, most guarded, most stubborn, most challenging person I have ever met, and I love you.” 

That’s what Jesus sounds like to me. 

We sin everyday. We make mistakes. We stumble and fall. And He loves us. Not but. 

Let me hold your hand when I say this: 

This kind of love isn’t earned. 

It isn’t proven.

It simply is. 

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8