The Book of 1 John is a huge blessing to us because it not only reminds us of who God is, but John is constantly reminding us of who we are because of who he is. John starts this verse with the word “see”. He wants us to turn our gaze and our attention right now at this moment to focus on the greatness of God’s love for us. The Father has given us a kind of love that is not one of an employer or employee. God calls us into his family and makes us his children. John wants us to see how glorious this truth is. It reminds us of what God has done for us through his Son. Jesus didn’t just handle some business arrangement even though he paid for our debt of sin. By dying for us and making us right with God, he now allows us to be children.

We have the love of a Father for his child, but what else is true about being a child? A child has the likeness of the family that they come from. Whenever someone sees Everette, who is 2 months old now, the first thing they try to figure out is if she looks like Morgan or if she looks like me. Why? Because we know that a child shares the characteristics of the family that they come from. We will look more at this idea in the following days, but John ended this short verse in a seemingly redundant way. He ends with “so we are”. At first, I was like of course you just told us this truth, but John seems to say it again because he is so overwhelmed by the magnitude of this. He is so taken aback even in his old age after walking with the physical Jesus that God the Father would give him and us the love that makes us his children.

In the busyness and craziness of this world, this may be an easy point to move on from. Today though, meditate on this truth until like John you can say, “so we are”.