You

-an excerpt-

“Lord, I love you. You are Maker of Heaven and Earth. You are Refuge. You are Relief. You are Shelter. You are Shade. You are an Awesome God. You are Forgiver. You are Healer. You are Ancient of Days. You are Alpha and Omega. You are the Prince of Peace. You are the Lord of Lords. You are Comforter. You are Open Arms. You are Mercy. You are Love. You are Grace. You are the God of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and Jacob. You are Judge and you are the Ransom paid for all. You are Guide, Helper, and Friend. You are Savior, Messiah, Ever-present, Eternal, Omniscient, Director, Organizer and Maker of mankind. You are Creator of life. You are Faithful. You are Giver. You are Encourager. You are Teacher. You are Discipliner. You are Corrector.

You are the God who led His people out of slavery in Egypt and through the Red Sea. You are the God who provided manna to your ungrateful people. You are the God who taught and continued to love Your people and provided a Ransom for Your people even in Your wrath for their disobedience. You are the God who sent down prophets to warn Your people of the reality of Your judgement and to declare the coming of Your Son. You are the God who hates divorce because You are concerned with the heart of man. You are the God who used a willing virgin in a humble hole in the wall to bring Yourself to save us from ourselves. You are the God who used flawed mankind to make Your name known and Your Greatness known. You are the God who endured 33 years of our pains and our ignorance. You are the God who took on all the humiliation, mocking, spitting, cursing, depression, emotions behind self-mutilation, pain, worthlessness, selfishness, arrogance, oppression, lusts, temptations, mistakes, fears, angers, outbursts, disobedience, discouragement, and shame of all mankind in exchange for the possibility that we would accept a life-renewing relationship with the god of the universe. You are the God that died on the cross before we ever even thought to accept Your beauty. You are the God that endured all of that, even if we chose not to accept your gift. You are the God that chose to forsake Your Son, a part of You, for a rebellious people yelling “crucify him!” You are the God who declared, “It is finished!” and never once gave up on Your promise to die for Your people, even as Your people held the hammers. You are the God who as laid in a tomb guarded by Roman guards and sealed from people and intruders.

Then…

You are the God who conquered death, leaving the linens to re-emphasize Your love and sacrifice for Your people. You are the God who reminded His people again and again that You will never leave them. You are the God that after ascension sent messengers to re-emphasize again Your love and sacrifice for all mankind. You are the God who sent down messengers who opened their hearts and arms to share Your teachings, the beauty of Your sacrifice and what our response should be. You are the God whose Son sits at the right hand of Your throne, after having been with us sinners for thirty-three years and having conquered the grave, and prays for our obedience. And You are the God who took a willing servant and had him write down the end of Your story… the triumph of You, and ultimately, Your people, to give us all the hope we could ever need during our times of darkness and persecution for Your name’s sake.

Lord, Father, Savior, You are that God.

You are all that and so much more.

Therefore, I love You.
Because You first showed me how to love.”