God loves us for more than one reason. Sounds simple, right? But when you pause to think about it, if you’re anything like me, you may be left wondering whether you’ve ever taken this simple truth to heart. Scripture tells us that God loved us first, but why did he do so? Why does he continue loving? I’d wager that many of us can only really come up with one reason—because he is love. In other words, it’s a theological necessity: he kinda has to. That’s where the manhwa The Villainess’s Bestie comes in, reminding us that there’s more than one reason why the Creator of the cosmos loves each one of us.
The Villainess’s Bestie on Tapas is sweet and earnest, and the art is up to sparkly standard, but the scripting can be pretty awkward. For example, the main character, five-year-old Charlize (or Charlie, to those who care for her, who are tragically few in number) likes to go around reminding herself and anyone who will listen that she’s been a maid in the royal palaces for five years now. Say what?! Has she been cleaning fireplaces since she was a babe in swaddling clothes? Hanging laundry since she was knee-high to a grasshopper?! She’s a likable kid, but, well, a tad melodramatic.
Now, in true webcomic fashion, Charlie is not, in fact, strictly speaking a five-year-old child, but rather an adult of undisclosed age who has reincarnated into the novel in which Charlie is a side character. We don’t know anything at all about (presumably) her former life, except that she did at least skim the novel and has retained some knowledge of the plot. And so far, the plot has gone skew-whiff! The villainess has turned out to be as rosy-hearted as her name, Empress Rose, implies, and what’s more, she’s taken a shine to the orphaned Charlie and loves her to bits like an older sister. For her part, Charlie can’t help but love the kind-hearted Empress in return, even after she finds out who she is (after first thinking her to be but a fellow humble maid). And so the cozy plot unfolds, following the ups and downs, misses and understandings between the two friends as they inch ever closer to becoming found family.
Until, that is, Charlie gets it in her head that her beloved Empress is only fond of her for one reason: because she’s young and therefore cute. Charlie begins to fear that once she grows up and no longer possesses said winsome qualities, the Empress is certain to grow bored of her and toss her aside. When Charlie sees how the palace maids shoo away the stray cat that they previously cooed over as a kitten, she is convinced her fate is sealed. The Empress is sure to shoo her away soon too.
Desperate, she turns to her friend the imprisoned prince (because manhwa) and his wise counsel, honed over eight entire years of existence (mostly spent in seclusion). “If you were keeping someone around because you like this person for a specific reason, and that reason went away one day…what do you think you’d do?“ she asks. Never one to mince words, the prince points out that her question is pretty weird. After Charlie presses him for an answer, though, he concedes that he’d “naturally grow more distant from that person…” Shot to the heart! Charlie is convinced that she too will be rejected and alone once again—unless… And that’s when it hits her: surely, she can earn dear Rose’s affection; she can give the Empress another reason to love her, if only she works hard enough to make herself useful.
I was midway through rolling my eyes with bombast when those very same eyes began to fill with tears. You see, my spirit understood something that my critical mind had not: I was Charlie, and God was my Empress Rose. Somewhere down deep, in the hidden recesses of the heart, even though I knew better with my brain, I was a little five-year-old who feared that my most precious Person loved me for only one reason: because he had to. And as a result, like Charlie, I too had been trying to give him more reasons to care.
On one level, it’s a great comfort that God is love and that his nature is unchanging, meaning his love will never end. Unlike fickle humanity, he has no capacity to fall out of love or to betray our affections. But does this mean that he really only loves us because, well, he can’t not love us? Is God’s love just about who he is, or does it have anything to do with us as individuals too? With who I am or who you are, specifically, beyond the fact that we’re part of his creation? Does God, like Empress Rose, have more than one reason for his love for me and for you?
The answer is, of course, a resounding ‘Yes!’ God may love us in part by default, as it were, in the sense that it’s his nature to love; but he also loves us intentionally, by choice. God has free will and he chooses each one of us particularly, for reasons.
So what are those reasons? I could go deep into quoting and unpacking scripture here; drawing on testimonies, on the one hand, and theological principles, on the other. But again, if you’re like me, reading that kind of list only goes so far; and it doesn’t necessarily speak to the little Charlie hidden in our hearts. So instead, let’s turn to The Villainess’s Bestie again, and see what the story has to reveal…
Confident that she now knows what she needs to do to retain Rose’s affection, Charlie cinches up her apron strings, dons her cap, and grabs that feather duster, wasting not a moment as she kicks into high gear, determined to be productive. No nook or cranny, no stray spider web or speck of dust is safe from her efforts! Every time the Empress invites her to tea and biscuits, to play together, or just to wander in the gardens, Charlie is doubly sure to make it clear how hard she’s trying, turning on her heel and speeding off to get down to work. Pretty soon, Rose is at a complete loss, wondering why Charlie keeps running from her.
And so she holds an intervention (with tea and madeleines, Charlie’s favorite), and Charlie at last confesses her fears. Rose sweeps them away, declaring that Charlie is like a little sister to her, and makes her eat the entire plate of cookies, saying they will magically make her forget her worries. And granted, Charlie does feel a lot better. It’s a happy reunion!
But it’s also a missed opportunity. You see, Charlie doesn’t have the courage to ask Rose why. As readers, we know from the rest of the story that the Empress has a great many reasons why Charlie, in particular, is dear to her heart, but none of them come to light during this tea party because Charlie doesn’t ask. And the little orphan still doesn’t really know why the Empress sees her with such affection; only that she does. This is wonderful, but there is so much more available, if only Charlie asked. I think the Empress would have shared a great deal more and drawn Charlie that much closer to her heart.
I recently started a new devotional, and on Day 1, it instructs: “Write down something here that the Lord tells you about how he feels about you.” In other words, ask him why he loves you. As I asked, memories of a childhood nickname came to mind—one that had only ever been used rarely, but was full of affection nonetheless. It invited me to see myself very differently from the rather Charlie-like frame of mind I’d been stuck in lately, convinced I was failing at faith and life and needed to work and try harder. It was a lovely moment.
But the next day, the devotional said the same thing again! I’ll admit, my editor’s instincts protested at seeing a repeated question: “That’s just lazy writing!” I fumed. But there was a second sentence that followed the first on Day 2, and in fact on every day of the devotional since, as the instruction continues to repeat daily. And this second sentence changes everything: “Trust that He will tell you something new every day because His love for you is endless.”
God has more reasons for loving you than there are days in your lifetime. He’s not waiting to love a better version of you. He’s already chosen you as the one he loves. He’ll show you his love, like Empress Rose does, by intervening when you’re wearing yourself out with futile efforts, by inviting you to rest with him, share tea and biscuits or whatever it is that are your favorite things. He’ll listen as you open up your heart and he’ll love the fear right out of you, freeing you like Charlie is freed after her little tea party.
But he’ll also do more, if we ask him. He has more to share with you and with me, and it’s so personal that I can’t tell you what it is! Only that it exists—God’s many reasons for loving you, in particular, are just waiting for you to discover. So why not ask him about his love for you today? He may just change your life with his answers!
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