1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Genesis 1:27
Man and Woman are Made in the Image of God
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
John 3:16
God LOVES the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Faith, Hope, and Love
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Luke 7:36-50
Jesus on Forgiveness and Love
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
I do agree that there is suffering in this world, that is beyond my understanding...There are many things in this world and universe that I do not understand...But suffering (and my inability to understand all things) does not necessary make the world, in my opinion, lose that there is great design and symmetry and beauty in this world...Where do my thoughts of design and beauty of this world come from?...Are these ideas just randomly planted in my mind?...
Imagine if our world had no design and no purpose at all, and everything in it was just here randomly over billions of years through chaos and evolution...Imagine living in a world that only holds for us pitiless indifference, and then we die -and nothing more...Richard Dawkins, an atheist, once said, “The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation...During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease...It must be so...If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored...In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice...The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”...
I personally think that the world was designed...And I believe that a Grand Designer designed the heavens and earth...And I believe that this Designer made us in His Own Image...And by making us in His Image, we are His children and He does LOVE us and the world, and He wants us to spend eternity with Him...
So I see design and purpose in the world, and not pitiless indifference...I see faith, hope, and love in this world...To those three greatest virtues that St. Paul writes about I see forgiveness and mercy...So, I see love, mercy, and forgiveness as not something I would describe as a pitiless indifference, but more toward purpose and design...And through these great purposeful virtues I feel and have faith and hope...