Rambling on Love

I've had it said to me that God not only loves me, but He likes me. On one hand, this doesn't make sense. Isn't "love" better than "like"? For instance, I'd feel much better knowing my wife loves me, and doesn't just like me. Otherwise, we could've just remained good buddies and never gotten married. Now, I know that I've just jumped to a different kind of the word "love" in a sense. But when someone says to me that God doesn't just love me, He likes me, that actually makes all the sense in the world to me. And it makes sense in such a way as to create joy in me. Why? I think part of it is, we have a skewed view of what "love" means, even the kind gotten from that Greek word "agape"("God's love", some say). We're taught things like "love is a choice." I've had people at work say "I love you, because God says I have to." It was humorous when I heard it, but I think there are many who view it simply that way. That makes love a duty, viewed from that perspective. And we all know that a duty may be done out of all sorts of motives. A parent may, or spouse can say, they love you. But you see many such relationships where there may be those words uttered within the ties of familial or marital bonds, but there seems to be lacking a real warmth of affection in the relationship. It can seem as a grudging duty. And many see loving God or Christ's Church the same way. I "have" to love God. I "have" to love my brother, or else I haven't fulfilled my obligation. Not to say whether my heart is in the thing.
So we sometimes project onto God our idea of "love". "Maybe He tolerates me as He would an annoying disappointing child", we think. "I'm not His favorite by any means. But He loves me, becuse He has to, or He would be acting out of character. He is a dutiful Father. He'll see my needs are met, although He'll probably do no more than that. Well, at least I know He loves me." We view love as a begrudging, dutiful thing, a cold, determined going-through-motions kind of deal, bound by some oath sworn to our hurt.


But if you like someone, that implies, in comparison, a much more willing, initiating, delightful thing. We generally don't make a deliberate choice to like someone. It usually comes naturally. We want to hang out with people we like, but we don't have to. We want to serve people we like, do nice things for them, give them gifts. We don't even have to think twice about it. To like someone brings with it a warmth of affection. People we like are called our friends. If God likes me, He is my friend. He isn't just stuck with me out of an obligation. He likes me! And He loves me. His liking me is part of how His love works. He delights in me, not just dutifully tolerating me.
I say none of this to diminish the word "love", or to imply that it is simply based on feelings, or that we are not commanded to love one another, or that it is just some buddy-buddy surface thing devoid of real commitment or covenant. Rather, I just think we sterilize the meaning of the word sometimes without realizing it, and it can take the revelation that God "likes" us to bring the warmth of affection He has for us to remembrance. Sometimes it's easier to acknowledge that God loves the world than to see He how He loves and likes me.