Daily Prayer: He Loved Us First
Daily Prayer: He Loved Us First
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
— 1 John 4:10
I was washing out my coffee mug this morning — the one my daughter gave me that says something slightly ridiculous on the side — and I noticed how automatic the whole thing was. Rinse, soap, rinse again. Done before I'd even fully arrived in the morning.
And for some reason, standing there at the sink, I thought about love. Not in a grand, sweeping way. Just the quiet fact of it — how much of real love happens before the other person even knows they needed it.
The Love That Didn't Wait for Us
That's what stops me every time I come back to 1 John 4:10. Not that we loved God first. Not that we earned something, or reached a certain level of devotion, or finally got our act together enough to deserve a response.
He just — loved us. Already. Before we turned around.
I think about the way I loved my daughter before she could form a sentence. Before she had opinions about what to eat for dinner (strong opinions, as it turns out — still). Before she knew my name or could say thank you. That love wasn't conditional on her performance. It just existed, and it moved, and it did things on her behalf because that's what love does.
And that's only a shadow of what this verse is describing.
An Atoning Sacrifice — Words Worth Sitting With
I'll be honest: "atoning sacrifice" is not casual language. It's the kind of phrase that could slide right past you if you're reading too fast. I've done that more times than I'd like to admit.
But when I slow down and actually think about what it means — that something was required, and God provided it himself, for us — it's almost too much to take in at the sink on an ordinary morning.
Almost. But not quite. Because I think ordinary mornings might actually be exactly the right place for it.
Love as a Starting Point, Not a Finish Line
My husband and I have been married long enough that love looks less like a feeling and more like a posture. It's the way he refills my water glass without being asked. It's the way I remember he doesn't like cilantro, even though it's delicious and he is objectively wrong about this.
Love, in the long run, is more about action than emotion. It moves. It does things. It costs something.
And that's exactly what this verse says about God's love. It wasn't passive. It wasn't just a warm feeling in the direction of humanity. It sent someone. It gave something. It paid a price we couldn't pay.
I find that genuinely steadying. On the days when my own love feels thin — when I'm distracted at work, or half-listening to a conversation I should be fully in — I'm not the origin point of love anyway. He is. I'm just someone who gets to receive it and pass it along.
What I Keep Coming Back To
My daughter is an adult now, which is its own strange and wonderful thing. She calls when she wants to, not because she has to. She has a life I only see pieces of. And I love her completely, in a way that has nothing to do with whether she checks in enough or remembers to call on the right days.
I think that's the closest I get to understanding this verse in my own bones. Love that doesn't wait to be earned. Love that already moved, already acted, already gave — long before the other person thought to ask.
That's the love we've been given. Not as a concept. As a fact.
I find it easier to move through my day when I remember that. Not because everything gets easier, but because the foundation is already solid. He loved us first. That's where we're standing.
A Prayer
Lord, I don't think I fully understand the depth of what you did — and I'm not sure I'm supposed to, not all at once. But I'm grateful. More grateful than I usually stop long enough to say.
Thank you for not waiting for me to get it together before you loved me. Thank you for sending Jesus before I knew I needed him. Thank you that your love is the starting point and not something I have to earn my way to.
Help me carry that today. Not in a big, showy way — just in the small ones. The refilled glasses. The remembered details. The grace I give when I'd rather not.
You loved us first. Let me live like I believe that.
Amen.
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