But Do You Like Me?

Many of us are YouTube perusers, often to the detriment of “what we ought to be doing…” If you imbibe that medium, your feed quickly indicates your interests: gardening, Messianic music, running and health, Monty Python sketches…oh wait, that’s my YouTube feed! 

Recently, I’ve been watching NDE videos (near death experiences), accounts of people who died and were then resuscitated. While there’s no shortage of viewpoints regarding those experiences, they are fascinating accounts of people encountering the afterlife. One I watched today recounted the well-know story of Howard Storm, an avowed atheist who died and found himself in hell. In the midst of the horrors he suffered, Storm quickly abandoned his arrogance and denial of HaShem, crying out, “Jesus please save me!” (Keep in mind that Storm is still alive, so this should not be considered a second chance after death.)

And then, Jesus did…

Storm describes how Yeshua was holding him, tightly, comforting him, and his first realization was that Yeshua liked him…a lot! In the clip, he choked up as he said, “Matter of fact, I’m His favorite person in the whole universe! I have to add,” he then says chuckling, “you are too!”

While I am very suspicious of NDE accounts, it got me to thinking…does our Creator like us?

There is a kind of perfunctory love of which we are all familiar. Our parents might remind us, for instance, that they loved us during our adolescence and then quickly add, “But I can’t say that I liked you much!”

We can fall into the trap of making that distinction when assuming how God loves/likes us. Recently, the author of the book “Gentile and Lowly,” Dane Ortlund, put it this way…”I think our tendency is to construct a view of God that unwittingly is an earth-to-heaven view rather than a heaven-to-earth view.”

In other words, we project our experience of love onto God, with a less than perfect understanding of His commitment to us as individuals.

We are hardwired to think of ourselves according to the law still…stuck in the “how am I doing Lord” mentality, believing that He evaluates us according to our performance.

Does HaShem merely tolerate us, or is He truly glad to be with us? I suspect most all of us can cognitively acknowledge the latter, all            the while treating His presence as if He is the parent of our adolescent selves. It is understandable after all, to see our heavenly Abba leading with the “disappointment card.”

“Why can’t you be more like your brother!” might be an echo from our youth.

What does it mean to be liked? There have been occasions when my wife will list the ways she likes me, which frankly, carries greater meaning than “I love you.” There’s no guessing about it, her comments are specific. She likes me!

God’s love can become so diminished when we water it down with our concept of parental love, or even “well, He loves everybody.” But His love is so far beyond our imaginings that it’s difficult with the filters we see through, to accept the fact, the truth, that He even likes us!

Those who rehearse this truth are more likely to relate to Yeshua beyond a performance-based, relationally conditional assumption.

I love this Ortlund quote during a recent interview: “Jesus is the single most accessible and approachable person in the universe. You don't have to go through security to get to him. You don't have to work your way up into a hearing before him. He is gentle and lowly in heart, which really is a fulfillment of what the Old Testament says about God himself. In places like Isaiah 57:15 God will say, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly.” So already we have these glorious hints and teachings in the Old Testament about God being accessible while holy, which Jesus is the tangible incarnation and concrete reality of.”

Today, as you tend your garden, or go for a walk, or read the word…consider the truth of God’s “like” for you. Tis a necessary ingredient for accepting His friendship. Shalom, haverim!