Do you ever wake up in the night, so awake you feel compelled to check the time? This morning it was 4:00 am on the nose and I was thinking I should go back to sleep.  And then a familiar verse popped into my head. “You are loved with an everlasting love…and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Have you ever been in the awkward and painful position of saying “I love you” to someone who didn’t say it back?  Now it was 4:12 and I was still under the warm covers. God decided to give me a “better” reason to get up. The bed was vibrating strangely. My husband was shivering. I asked him softly if he needed another blanket. His incoherent answer was from a deep sleep and his side of the electric blanket was turned off.  Tip toeing around the bed, I found his controller and turned it on, then gathered my Bible, journal, and went to a room where I could sing “I love You” back to the LORD.

Maybe you have never heard God say “I love you” audibly, but He says it in the Bible, over and over. In Jeremiah 31:3, “The LORD appeared from of old to me saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you with loving kindness.’” And in Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms…” In Hebrew, to dwell means to sit down, remain, or to marry. Jesus loves us, He woos us like a bride, if we say yes to Him, He dwells within us, and He is a faithful husband.

He loves to hear us say how much we love Him too. If you prefer to sing it, there is a great Maranatha chorus: