Tag: unbelievable

Lavish love

When was the last time you were overwhelmed by someone’s generous, extravagant, elaborate, luxurious love? I mean truly blown away, melted, in awe, mouth open, stunned and head shaking in unbelievable amazement?

Think for a moment.

Can you relate to having love lavished on you in such an astonishing way?

To help us visualize this type of love, imagine a young person with a red, solo cup in hand saying, “Yes, I want it all, I’m ready. Here, fill me up”, and extending the red, solo cup to receive it all.

puny, red, solo cup

In response, comes a deluge from the skies totally engulfing the youngster, drenching him, filling the cup, overflowing the cup, and moistening everything in the youngster’s life with this lavish and extravagant outpouring. He/she was overwhelmed. Lavished. Unable to contain it all. The red, solo cup mentality was far too small for what rich, generous and abundant outpouring was available and coming.

There are two applications that I have recently seen in regards to this.

First, we are loved waaaaay more than our puny minds can fathom! God’s love for us is generous, excessive, abundant, beyond what we can imagine, rich, poured out without measure, indescribable!

His love reaches to the heavens, his faithfulness to the skies, righteousness to the mountains, justice to the great deep, is priceless and is a river of delights. (Psalm 36)

He gives generously to all without finding fault. (Jas. 1:5)

No one has seen or heard what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Cor. 2:9)

We are unable to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ for us. (Eph. 3:18)

1 John 3:1 – Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s love that he has lavished on us!

We are the one holding that red, solo cup, unable to hold the depth of the outpouring of his love for us.

His love for you is overwhelming. Beyond what the red, solo cup mind can hold or understand. Bask in the deluge of his love, let him drench you and moisten everything in your life. Receive his lavish love.

Last point worth making is this – God is generous, He is not tight fisted.

Just look at the natural world for a glimpse of his generosity:

  • There are 25,000 varieties of orchids
  • Orchids are 1 of 270,000 species of flowers
  • The galaxy has 100,000 million stars like our sun
  • Our galaxy is 1 of 100,000 million galaxies
  • The estimated number of sand on the Earth is 7.5 x 10 to the 18th power
  • Sand in the universe = 10 to the 63rd power
  • Atoms in the universe = 10 to the 80th power
  • Even though there are over 70 thousand, million, million, million stars in the universe there are
  • that same number of molecules in just 10 drops of water
  • YES! There are more water molecules in the universe than stars.

God is generous. Unfathomable. Beyond our understanding. No eye has seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for all who love him. Amazing!

Yet, he willingly pours out on us his love, grace, faith, knowledge and all we need. He willingly lavishes his love on us.

The unfathomable God has lavished his love and provision on you. Live in the deluge, dance in that deluge, be refreshed in that deluge and throw away that puny, red solo cup.

Cheers to you

Incomprehensible

It all started with a discussion about the size of 2.2 trillion (dollars).

While listening to and trying to digest it all, I realized, I had no real understanding of the number 1 trillion. Much less 2.2 trillion. So I did what every serious scholar and academically driven researcher does, I googled it. 🙂

After much mind numbing reading about zeros, exponents, and viewing diagrams of stacking bills on pallets, here are my 2 take aways:

1. If you spent $1,000 a day, it would take you 2.7 million years to spend 1 trillion dollars. And you would still have lots left over!

2. If you stacked $100. bills to equal 1 trillion, the stack would be 789 miles high. That is equal to 144 Mount Everest’s stacked on top of each other.

Bottom line for my mind, a trillion is incomprehensible.

But it really got me thinking about other things that are incomprehensible.

The universe, for example.

part of our universe. we’re in there somewhere

Scientists don’t even use the term universe. It’s been more accurately described as the “observable universe” because there is more than what we actually see. It’s size, they say, is 93 million light years in diameter. (For those that slept through Science class, remember, a light year is the distance light travels in a year or about 10 trillion km! (Really 9,500,000,000,000 km!) There’s that trillion again… Incomprehensible!

We live in a galaxy we know as The Milky Way. And to us, it’s really big. But geesh, we live on ONE of it’s 4 arms, called Orion, in a system called The Solar System, on a planet called Earth, on a continent called North America, nation called America, state called _____, county called _____ , city called _____, on a street called _____, and finally to OUR house at _____ . The size of all that is incomprehensible.

Consider too, our galaxy is but one of 350 billion large galaxies in the Milky Way! It houses 30 billion -trillion stars. (30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.) To put this in perspective, if you were to go out of the city and look into the sky, you would maybe see 2,500 stars. But there are actually 80 million times MORE STARS in the Milky Way and beyond.

There are actually 28 times more stars in the galaxy than the 7.2 billion people on the Earth. Another comparison, there are 1 billion cars on Earth – for every car there are 200 galaxies in the observable universe. Plus, there are 40 billion, Earth sized planets that could sustain human life. (Maybe we’re NOT alone in the universe???)

these are galaxies

Again, all of these numbers are incomprehensible! My brain hurts.

One last incomprehensible thing for you to think about.

GOD’S LOVE

The very Creator, who made all those galaxies, stars, planets, universe, both observable and beyond; the One who gives man the ability to deal with trillions of dollars and understand what he is doing; that God – LOVES YOU and me. I’m floored that he even notices us, with how small and insignificant we are compared to the details of a universe. But he does notice us, knows us and loves us. THAT is unfathomable, inscrutable, and yes, incomprehensible.

” …I pray that you be able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…”

The Apostle Paul

Other writers have described God’s love this way:

  • everlasting
  • caring
  • slow to anger
  • never ending
  • affectionate
  • will never leave you alone
  • no barrier can separate us from God’s love

God’s love for us is so unimaginable, incomprehensible that He sent His only Son into the world, that we might have life through him, who was our sacrifice. I John 4:9-10

Jesus coming to Earth was a demonstration of God’s love for us. Jesus’ living here and brutal death on the cross was a demonstration of God’s incomprehensible love for us. Who would do that?

The suffering Jesus endured before crucifixion and later suffocating as he hung on that cross was pure and simple torture! It is incomprehensible.

When you have time, check out this video I made, about just that. (9 minutes)

Jesus’ crucifixion

God knows you, everything about you; strengths, weaknesses, good, bad, likes, dislikes, ups and down – AND HE LOVES YOU. Without measure, everlasting, carefully, caring, patiently, completely and unconditional. THAT blows my mind and is truly incomprehensible.

So, this weekend, as we celebrate Easter, I hope that you will celebrate the incomprehensible love that God demonstrated for you by sending Jesus to Earth; who lived, died and returned to life after three days! Who spent 40 days after the resurrection on Earth, was seen by over 500 people and after that was taken back up to heaven, (which was also witnessed by hundreds) where He is to this day.

Yet, to those who trust in Him, He comes to reside in their hearts as well.

Talk about incomprehensible???? My brain is exploding but my heart is overwhelming with gratitude.

Have a Happy Easter, because YOU ARE LOVED BY OUR IMCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD.

Cheers to you.