We don’t often think about God’s love for us. Sometimes we falsely think that God is more like Zeus, Thor, or even “Thanos,” a vengeful god, ready to strike us down with his lightning bolt.

Yet, in a private revelation to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a religious visionary of the 17th century, Jesus revealed himself in a much different way.

It was during the first revelation about devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and this is how the vision began. The saint wrote down what Jesus spoke to her as she lay near to his heart.

“My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with [humanity] that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent charity. It must pour them out by your means, and manifest itself to them to enrich them with its precious treasures, which contain all the graces of which they have need to be saved from perdition.”

This is one of the reasons why Jesus revealed himself to St. Margaret Mary with his heart outside of his body. This symbolizes how Jesus could not contain his love for us and his heart literally burst through his chest, a symbol of his passionate love.

The revelation of Jesus’ Heart to St. Margaret Mary is a great reminder to us, dispelling any false images of God we may have. He is not an angry Thanos looking to destroy us, but a lover, who desires our souls, hoping to fill them with his joy.