GOD'S "HOOOGE" LOVE AND GRACE

It's usually the little things that escape our notice. You know those little details, like forgetting to put the salt in a recipe or being one number off on a phone number or putting on a pair of black socks only to find out later in the right (or wrong) light that you are wearing black on one foot and navy on the other. Missing these little details are not detrimental to our existence but can be a frustration and an embarrassment.

There is something else which seems to escape most people's notice, but the interesting thing is that it is not a small thing. It is huge and like those dark socks, we don't see it until the right light is shone upon the matter. It is evidences of God's creation and activity in our lives. I have known Jesus as my Lord and Master for well over thirty years but a few weeks ago on a bright sunshiny day God shone His Perfect Light on truth when He opened my eyes to a greater and grander view of Him in creation and His love and grace for me.

I had been doing my Godquest study by Sean McDowell and Jennifer Dion. In the second signpost about creation the book took a quote from Frank Turek and Norman Geisler’s' I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Athiest:

There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and the average distance between
those stars is 30 trillion miles. How far is 30 trillion miles? Let’s put it this way: when the Space Shuttke is in orbit it travels at about 17,000 MPH – almost five miles per second. If you could get in the Space Shuttle and speed through space at five miles per second, it would take you 201,450 years to travel 30 trillion miles! In other words, if you had gotten in the Space Shuttle at the time of Christ…you would be only one hundredth of the way there right now.

Wow! God certainly had my attention as He seemed to be saying, "Take note of this", for He had been doing a work in my heart this past summer which so connected with that quote. He had been waking me at very odd, and I might add, very dark hours and leading me to our little backyard courtyard where He was speaking to my heart about "all those stars". I treasure those times of just sitting in the darkness (which was really sitting in the presence of His light). There was such a closeness which I know really came as a result of praising Him for "all those stars" and all His handiwork. I truly do believe the passage that says God "inhabits (enthrones, dwells in) the praise of His people". It was incredible!

But now it was daylight and He was, once again directing me to the sky; a bright, clear, far reaching, blue sky. My mind began to consider such simple thoughts:

There is no end to the sky. It just goes on and on and on. There is such a
vastness. It is so huge.

Now granted, these are truths I already knew but somehow on that particular day at that particular time it was as if God was confirming His "bigness" to me; that He was indeed the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End; that His majesty was so vast, so huge. The thoughts literally made me lift my arms in praise and worship. I was worshipping His vastness. In fact God brought my Little Mav to mind. He is two and a half years old now and has this thing he does where he spreads his arms wide to the sky and declares, (whatever is on His mind at the moment) "........is hoooge!" Be it a hoooge rock Daddy threw in the river or hoooge cookie he is presently enjoying, he is more than expressive in his declaration. Made me chuckle to think I was doing the same thing with my God.

But then it got better. I sensed God taking me deeper still into His greatness when this thought, which I know were really His words, came to my heart,

"This is also the vastness of my great love and grace for all my children. It extends beyond my universe."

Even now, the tears want to flow as I recall it. To look at the vast sky, the literal universe which has no beginning or end; to recognize the smallness of planet earth among many in the
universe; the minuscule creatures we are on this small planet. And yet God's heart speaks from the vastness and says, "This is my love for you and all my children, my vast love and grace.” It was beautifully overwhelming. Especially in light of this truth:

neither you nor I deserve such a vast and unending love.

Consider these two scriptures:

For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Psalm 57:10

and

God demonstrates his own love toward us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

God is telling you and me quite frankly, that He loves us with a love as vast as the heavens and His greatest expression of that love came through his Son Jesus at the cross, while we were quite unlovely. Now that ought to knock those mismatched socks right off your pretty little feet. This, sweet sister, is something to be thankful for. This sweet sister, is HOOOGE!