Called His Child
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1 NIV
There is a word in this verse that deserves to be held for a moment. Lavished. Not given sparingly. Not offered with conditions attached. Lavished — poured out generously, extravagantly, with nothing held back. That is the word John chooses to describe what the Father has done in calling you His child. He did not extend a cautious invitation. He lavished His love on you.
And the result is not just a feeling or a spiritual experience you carry privately. The result is an identity. You are called a child of God — and then John adds something that sounds almost like he cannot quite believe it himself — and that is what we are. Not what we are trying to become. Not what we hope to be one day if we get everything right. What we are, right now, because of what He has done.
The moment you believed in Christ, that identity became yours. It was not gradual. It was not earned through years of faithful service or a long track record of good decisions. It happened at the moment of belief, and it has been true ever since. You are His child. That is settled.
But here is what makes this truth so quietly remarkable: the world around you may not see it. John says as much. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. You still go to work. You still run errands and answer emails and sit in traffic and have ordinary conversations with people who have no idea what is happening inside you. Life continues at its usual pace. And in the middle of all of it, a transformation is underway that the world around you cannot fully perceive — because it does not know the One who is doing the transforming.
You are becoming more like Christ. Not all at once, not in ways that are always visible, but steadily — day by day, season by season — until He returns. The inward work is real even when it is quiet. The change is happening even when no one around you can name what is different. You are being shaped from the inside by a love that was lavished on you before you had anything to show for it.
This is your hope. Not a hope that depends on the world recognizing your worth or affirming your progress. A hope rooted in who God says you are — His child — and in the certainty that what He has begun in you, He will complete.
So celebrate it. Not loudly, not for the approval of anyone watching, but in the quiet of your own heart where the truth lives. You are called His child. And that is exactly what you are.
Reflections
What does it mean to you personally that God's love was lavished on you — not measured out carefully, but poured out generously? How does knowing your identity as a child of God change the way you see yourself on an ordinary day when nothing feels particularly spiritual? In what ways have you noticed yourself becoming more like Christ, even in small or quiet ways that others might not see? How can you celebrate your identity as His child today, in the middle of your regular routine?
Prayer
Father, I am overwhelmed by the word lavished. You did not give me just enough love to get by — You poured it out. You called me Your child, and You meant it. Help me to live from that truth today. When the world around me does not recognize what You are doing in me, let me not be discouraged. Let me remember that the transformation is real, that the work is ongoing, and that my identity does not depend on anyone else seeing it. My hope is in You. I celebrate being called Your child — not because I have earned it, but because You gave it freely. Keep shaping me, keep changing me, keep making me more like Your Son until the day He returns. In Jesus Name, Amen.