Does God love the devil?

We were in the midst of a catechism lesson when the small voice of my 5-year-old asked, “Does God love the devil?”

I was a little surprised by his question and asked, “Why?”

“Well, you said that God loves all of creation because God is love. God made the devil. Does He love him?”

I looked down into his trusting brown eyes and said, “Yes, my love, God loves the devil.”

“You’re wrong, Mom,” my 13-year-old said from nearby. “God only loves what is good. He can’t love the embodiment of evil.”

I smiled at him and asked, “Is there nothing good in Lucifer? Nothing at all that is ‘of God’?”

“No.” He stated firmly.

“What about the fact that he exists? Is life itself ever evil?”

“Well…no…”

“God made him and then he went bad,” piped up the 5-year-old.

“”Yes,” I hugged him. “Wouldn’t God love the angel he created even if he detested what he had become? Do you think any of you could ever do anything that would make me stop loving you?”

The 13-year-old pondered that and said, “If I became a mass murderer maybe.”

“You would still be the baby with the duck fluff hair who giggled in his sleep. Even as my heart would grieve for the terror you had become, even if we had to walk away from you for our own safety, even then I would be your mother and love you.  Being a mom is a love that doesn’t stop, and God’s love is even bigger than that.”

“I knew it!” said the 5-year-old. “That’s why I pray for him.”

“Pray for who, love?”

“Pray for the devil. I pray for God to touch his heart so that he can be an angel again and get to go home. Don’t you pray for him, Mom?”

“I do. Starting today.”

image credit: Satan Before the Lord by Corrado Giaquinto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons