Music Monday: “No Matter What” by Ryan Stevenson (featuring Bart Millard)
By: Debbie Waltz
I sincerely hope that all of you experienced a wonderfully joyful Valentine’s Day this past weekend, being in the company of your cherished friends and beloved family members. My celebrations were quite successful, as I enjoyed quality time with my family and also had a pleasant evening meal at Olive Garden with one of my dearest friends and her son. Although this holiday primarily targets couples and heavily commercializes itself, I shared something on my Facebook that had been on my heart every year leading up to Valentine’s Day. In a society that often views partnership as an obligatory step, the challenges of being single are amplified, making the experience even more trying.
That got me thinking… Who said the holiday had to be primarily for couples and married people? As followers of Christ, we are called to represent God’s love to a suffering and wounded world. This should come from a place of gratitude, not solely because God has shown us the same mercy. 1 John 4:19 reminds us, “We love because he first loved us.” It’s important to remember that God gives us each day as a present, since we don’t know if we’ll see tomorrow (2 Corinthians 6:2).
In previous discussions, I’ve highlighted that our earthly fathers should reflect our spiritual connection to God. But like humans, we fall short. On the other hand, God’s love for us is unconditional. He invites us to come just as we are. In Psalms 103:11- 17, David writes: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him ;as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—..” (NIV)
Ryan Stevenson’s music reminds us of the profound truth that we are all children of God. Just as children can approach their parent in their natural state, we can come to God exactly as we are, and His love for us remains constant. It is our identity in Christ, not our deeds, that determines our value. Just as Paul writes in Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (8: 38- 39 NIV)