The love of God is not coercive. Love never forces its own way. We are free to respond, free to accept or reject. We can reject love, to the pain of God and to our own determent. We can receive it to ours and God’s delight. “God is love”, and His character of holy-love is behind all of His overtures toward us. Love is born in us when we fully embrace His great love for us. This unconditional love, when lived out to those in our lives in non-coercive ways, brings the God of love near to them.
“How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Luke 13:34b (NIV)
