And so we know and rely on the love God has for us…. 1 John 4:16 (NIV)
I was walking by a colleague’s work area this morning when I noticed a little magnetic sign above his desk: Jesus loves you, but I’m His favorite.
Really? Outrageous, maybe even a bit sacrilegious, but I laughed anyway.
It was a funny notion, antithetical to Christianity but very human. Of course Jesus loves us all equally. And, of course, we all want to be His favorite, like children vying for parental approval. I tapped my colleague on the shoulder and said, “Everyone knows I’m His favorite.”
My colleague just smiled, shook his head, and went back to work. Yet this notion nagged at me; my mind kept drifting back to it throughout the day. Does Jesus have favorites? John was called “beloved,” but did Jesus love him more than his brother James or the other apostles?
And since John is only referred to as beloved by Jesus in the Book of John, was John himself trying to claim the mantle of Jesus’s favorite? Do we all have this problem of wanting to be the one Christ dotes on?
Would any good Christian want Jesus to love him or her more than anyone else? Yes, I decided. In a way, at least. I believe that Christ loves every one of us, even those who do not know Him, as if we are each in fact His favorite. This is the nature of divine love—infinite, limitless, ineffable.
In Ephesians, it says that we may not fully understand the breadth and depth of Christ’s love. That includes its simultaneity: He loves all of us equally and infinitely. We are each His favorite. Perhaps the reward of heaven is that we will finally be able to love Jesus the way He loves us, not in our small, imperfect human way. We will love Jesus as He intended us to love Him. We will love eternally. Until then, though, I’m happy to be Jesus’ favorite.
Jesus, Your love for us exceeds all human understanding. It is like a light that shines in all directions and is brightest everywhere at once and never fades.
