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I’ve been up since 2am, not so unusual for me. But what did set the last twelve hours apart from the norm was the misery that filled me, together with some very ugly thoughts.

My good friend called and, sometime during our conversation, I couldn’t resist saying “I love you.” And how good that made me feel. It lifted the misery temporarily. Come to think of it I say this quite often to friends – out of the blue. They must think me strange.

It made me wonder: We know God loves us. That’s what we’re always told. However, there is no record in the Bible of Jesus telling someone “I love you” in such a direct way. That seems a little strange to me.

But I’ve done some research and there are many places where Jesus indicates His love, but doesn’t use those three words in particular:

John 11: 5   Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. John 13: 23   Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. John 15: 9    “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

Even though those words in particular are not in our Bibles, we can still be assured that – if we asked Him to – Jesus would tell us “I love you.” And sometimes we really need to hear those words, don’t we?