Navigating the New Year with the Assurance of God’s Love

It was that awkward time during a gathering, when the food is ready and waiting on the buffet table but no one has started eating yet. The adults were clumped together near a table of crafts set out for the children. The kids were running around with their makeshift foam headbands, stickers flying. 

Soon, a tinny noise came from my friend’s phone: her son had requested the “Baby Shark” song. While a handful of kids sang along, my neighbor told us that her two-year-old had learned a fun dance to go along with this song. She knelt down and asked him: “Do you want to dance for us?”

My own boys are 10 and 11 and would never be caught dancing in public anymore, so I had a small moment of nostalgia for the adorable toddlers they once were. One day, when they were 2 and 3, we brought them to the zoo and there had been a live musical performance on a stage near the entrance. There was a bit of a crowd gathered around to hear them, and my boys broke away from us to dance with abandon at the foot of the stage, their chubby bodies wiggling, spinning, and jumping with delight.

My neighbor’s son, however, wasn’t feeling it. Whether he was shy or distracted by the crafts or the food, I’m not sure. But, instead of saying “No,” he declared “JESUS LOVES ME!” and ran off. We all chuckled, but I was charmed.

I found his answer to be deeply moving: confident in Jesus’ love for us, we do not need to strive, perform, or in any way earn approval from others. Owning our belovedness in Christ is what frees us to live our life with God, independent of anything the world tells us we “should” be doing.

There are lots of “shoulds” in January. It’s as if the collective temperature around us is turned up until it reaches a boil, and we were already feeling hot from the pressure of the “shoulds” around the holiday season. Everything about starting the new year inspires us to do better and be better. I love goals and shiny new planners and habit trackers, but our quest for personal improvement can get tangled up with our self-worth. 

When we fail at living up to our own expectations, it’s easy to feel worthless. When we succeed, our victory is short-lived in pursuit of the next goal. There is never an end to achievement, no shortage of people to impress, and always someone else who’s further along than we are. Oh, how I long to be just like that two-year-old, with his inner knowing of Jesus’ unconditional love.

This is the same kind of love that God declared when Jesus was baptized.

“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”” (Luke 3:21-22, NIV)

What is so moving about this story is that it took place before Jesus’ ministry even started. Before he performed any miraculous signs, before he healed a single person, before he taught any crowds, before he uttered a single parable, God declared his love for his Son. God announced he was pleased with Jesus before Jesus had done a thing to warrant that love. God’s love was proclaimed simply on the basis of Jesus’ identity in relationship to him.

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, before we set out to accomplish a single goal, before we start any new habits, before we make progress on any lofty intentions, can we put our identity in Christ at the forefront, claiming God’s unconditional love for us in the very core of our being?

To rest in our identity as God’s beloved doesn’t excuse us from effort. In fact, becoming more and more like Jesus is the ultimate goal of the Christian life. Rather, resting in our identity fills our hearts and fuels our steps. His deep love for us serves as a wellspring from which our love for others and for God flows. 

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*Feature Photo by Peyman Shojaei on Unsplash