As we are loved

In John 13, we have the tender scene where Jesus takes the position of the lowest servant in any household to do the most menial task, which was to wash the feet of the guests.  In those days, they didn't have the paved roads and concrete sidewalks we all know, and they walked everywhere in their sandals, so their feet were always dusty when they arrived anywhere.  The servant with the lowest rank and least seniority got to crouch before each of them and wash their feet.
We are told that Jesus knew who would betray Him (John 13:21, 26), who would deny Him (verse 38) and He predicted that all His disciples would desert Him (Matthew 26:31). Yet He humbly bent before each of His disciples, including Peter and even Judas and washed and dried their feet.
Later, He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another" (verses 34, 35).
If you're like me, you immediately want to berate yourself for not being the loving follower of Jesus that you're supposed to be.  But I believe it's impossible; I cannot, unless I first recognize, believe and receive how He has first loved me.  I can't give away what I don't have, and I won't have this love unless I have it from Him.
Of course, there is no shortage of love coming from Him.  We know that it is unconditional,  limitless, and certainly far beyond our comprehension.
But, Lord, help us to get more understanding of it!
That was one of Paul's prayers for the Ephesians:  "May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the length and breadth and height and depth [of it]:  [that you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!" (chapter 3, verses 17b-19, Amplified version).
Yes, to apprehend and grasp and to know, practically, through experiencing it.
Most of us have heard from childhood and on that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" but we kind of miss that next verse, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world" and we continue to feel condemned.  It's so hard for us to believe that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Can it really be that He doesn't count our sins against us?
Can He actually love us with the love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 which is patient and kind, "takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong] (verse 5, Amplified version)?  Of course.  He has to because that is what this chapter is about - the God-kind of love, from the Greek word agape.  And God is agape love (1 John 4:16).
Jesus demonstrated this attitude on the cross when He said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing" (Luke 23:34).
The writer of Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah 31:34 when he says "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17) and this is true for us only because Jesus came to do God's will, offered His own pure, sinless blood as a sacrifice for all sin forever and "by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (read verses 5-18).  Forgiven.  My sins not counted against me.  And even perfected.  Wow!
Let's join together in making this one of our primary prayers for ourselves and each other - to really know the love of God for us.  Then that love will spill out onto those around us and there will be the evidence that we are His disciples, when we love as we are loved.