Meditation 2: God loves it

Julian discerned three properties in her vision of the thing no bigger than a hazelnut representing all that is made: “In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God keeps it.”
 

Read the following passages from the Bible and Julian. Sit quietly for several minutes meditating on what it means to believe that God loves what he has made. God delights in everything in the universe – from supernovae to subatomic particles, from humpback whales to banana slugs. What does it mean to believe that God loves and delights in every single human being? What does it mean to believe that God loves and delights in you? God desires your good. Carry that around in your heart for a day.

From the Bible:

• For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

• Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
• But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
• I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

• But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5)

• God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.  (1 John 4:9-11)

From Julian:

• Then Jesus our good Lord said: If you are satisfied, I am satisfied. It is a joy, a bliss, an endless delight to me that ever I suffered my Passion for you; and if I could suffer more, I should suffer more. (9th Revelation, p. 216)

• For we are his bliss, because he endlessly delights in us; and so with his grace shall we delight in him. (9th Revelation, p. 219)

• Our good Lord said most joyfully: See how I love you, as if he had said, my darling, behold and see your Lord, your God, who is your creator and your endless joy; see your own brother, your savior; my child, behold and see what delight and bliss I have in your salvation, and for my love rejoice with me. (10th Revelation, p. 221)

 
• Do you wish to know the Lord’s meaning in this? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why did he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this and you will never know different, without end. (15th  Revelation, p. 342)

Julian understands that God’s love is not simple affirmation, but also entails the promise of transformation:

• He says: I shall completely break down in you your empty affections and your vicious pride, and then I shall gather you and make you meek and mild and holy through union with me. (13th Revelation, p. 227)

The Julian quotes are from Julian of Norwich: Showings (Classics of Western Spirituality).

Next: Meditation 3: God keeps it

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