God treasures and nurtures his children.
In this series on God’s love, I’ve written three other posts that address the strength of God’s affection for his people (Affectionate Love, The Intimacy of Absolute Trust, and Romantic Love). Each has a different emphasis. I want to do one more on the theme because it also has a different, encouraging emphasis. This topic is God’s cherishing love. Two Scriptures call attention to it, both using the same Greek word (thalpo), one using the analogy of a person cherishing his own body and the other using the analogy of a nursing mother cherishing her child.
Cherishing our bodies
“No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes [Greek, thalpo] it, just as Christ does the church” (Ephesians 5:29, ESV).
Consider the many ways you may have cherished your body this week: cooking and eating healthy food, enjoying unhealthy food, sleeping, brushing teeth, showering and washing hands and assorted other cleanup, beautification of hair and face, exercising, assorted doctor visits, buying and caring for clothing, looking in the mirror, cutting nails, applying lotion or sunscreen, taking medicine and vitamins, physical therapy. You may have even gone to a spa.
Yes, we cherish our bodies. We nourish, pamper, comfort, strengthen, heal, and protect them. Jesus cherishes the church, and you a Christian, the way people cherish their bodies.
Cherishing a child
“We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care (Greek, thalpo) of her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7, ESV). Notice that the comparison here is not just to a mother but to a nursing mother, a woman who tenderly holds a baby to her breast and lets the child suck milk from her for hours each day. Nursing mothers sing to their children. They caress and shelter them. They gently nurture and hold them.
To communicate this same idea, Scripture also uses the analogy of a shepherd with sheep. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
Psalm 23:1–3 says, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”
Jesus commanded the apostle Peter, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15).
The Book of Revelation describes the cherishing kind of love God will show to those who have suffered on earth for their faith. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:15–17).
All these Scriptures picture God’s heart toward you.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: A fallen person tries to take advantage of God’s cherishing love. Or we may think of God in either-or categories: always either judging or tender.
God’s way: His love is not indulgent, but he is not just a disciplinarian. He truly cherishes and treasures his children more than any mother cherishes her child or any woman cherishes her body. In a sense, God’s love is a spa for the soul.
Life principle: When your soul yearns for comfort, think long on the cherishing love of God.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)