At a recent prayer meeting, someone said that a better translation for the word ‘love’ in John 3:16 would be ‘cherish’. I only have a smattering of knowledge of Biblical Greek so I can’t be sure of the accuracy of the translation but I do know that when I substituted ‘cherish’ for ‘love’ in that verse and read it as:
“For God so cherished the world (and that means us), that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” it came alive to me in a new way.
Certainly it brought back memories of David Cassidy and my youth, “cherish” isn’t a word I use much in common speak but maybe I should. Cherish assumes that the love is there but it goes further. It speaks of an active love, a holding close – the dictionary says it’s to ‘protect and care for lovingly’. Nothing really means the same. One suggested synonym is to ‘prize’ someone but that’s more about showing deep pride in your ownership or possession of someone – it’s not so much about treating people as equals. Or you could use the word ‘treasure’ but when I looked that up it was about jealously safeguarding something precious. Whereas ‘cherish’ speaks of the value and worth we have in God’s eyes by just being us and that He loves us so much that He selflessly gives for our sake. Its not just words with Him – He doesn’t just say He loves us – though that would be amazing in itself – He does love.
The date of Easter this year, coming so early and skewing the children’s holidays so they don’t break up until Maundy Thursday and then have most of their time off after the long weekend, has caused some headaches when organising Church events. However, it’s no coincidence that Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. As we celebrate human love, we are drawn to contemplate how greatly God cherishes each one of us and how He expressed this by giving up His Son that we might be protected and hidden from the consequences of sin and might be able to be with Him forever.
In my thesaurus, the opposite of cherish is ‘Abandon’. Jesus was abandoned by His Father on the cross…. for us. How amazing is the Father’s love!