"4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." Ephesians 1:4-8
He adopted me as His daughter and LOVED me. Regardless of all my flaws and the mistakes that I make every day, He predestined me into His family. When I think about this.. it makes me think of family. My mom loves me unconditionally. This I know because I've made her face turn every color before and yet she still provides me with everything that I need and want.. She loves me and she will love me no matter what. But it's different with adopted children. Their adoptive parents selected them and chose to love them. In some ways, this is where you can see real, active love. We choose to accept them and love them although we don't have any obligation to do so. This is God to me. He doesn't have to love me. He could have let me go out in to the world and let me know do whatever I wanted and not even take a second glance at me when I fell. But no, He chose to love me and to take that even further, He sacrificed His own son to die for my mistakes. Verse 5 says that He did this "in accordance with His pleasure and will"- So a) He chose to accept me, and b) He loved me out of His pleasure. No one forced Him to love me, there was no ultimatum for Him. He chose me.
