God's love

How do we know God loves us? It's a question I've been struggling with lately, that's for sure. For me, the experience of my childhood gave me a shaky understanding of love - how it should be expressed, why it is expressed or felt. My self-esteem issues make it difficult for me to accept love sometimes - I feel unworthy of it. And when that happens in my relationship with God, it's the ultimate pride: I am the one person in the universe for whom God goes against His very nature (which is Love). Right. (eye roll)

So today I had this thought: I love God. It's true, I do. I may not know why or how but I know I love God and His Church. And if I, little me, can love God then how much more can He who IS LOVE, love me? Perhaps I try too hard to circumvent my ingrained Western way of thinking about things.