Dimensions
Cannot begin to measure God's love
Dimensions. As a remodeler and DIYer, I know that dimensions describe openings, door and window size, square footage, etc. Dimensions are all about height, width, length and depth. They’re essential.
What do dimensions have to do with love? Everything. God’s love for us, expressed through Christ, exceeds our comprehension. We cannot measure it.
“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” Ephesians, 3:18 (NIV)
We lack the ability to understand the dimensions of God’s love. This is why Paul longed for him to give the Ephesian Christians the power to understand the deep depth, towering height, and East-West width of God’s love for them.
The closer we move to understanding God’s love, the more we know that we all fall short.
Do you feel like you don’t measure up? I do. On my own, how can I? I fall and fail in so many ways. So do you. Compared to a perfect and loving God, we all do.
How do we please him? According to A.W. Tozer, “We please God most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms.”
This is why his boundless love is so wonderfully amazing; it’s blessedly so.
Imagine asking God, “Do you love me, Lord?” He smiles and says, “Oh, yes, my child.” Then like a child, you ask, “How much?” He smiles even more broadly, stretches his mighty hand high in the air and keeps going until its height towers in the heavens.
Then God opens his arms wide—wider than East is to West. Then he shows you the vastness of the deepest ocean, and says, “I love you even more than this.” And then you realize it’s the same ocean that God chose to cast your sins and failures into to forgive and forget them.
Maybe he’d say, “I loved you before time, before I made the world, before I made you. I show you my love in height, width, length and depth, but I love you more than can be measured. I love you because I choose to, my child.”
I need God’s power to understand his love for me. We all do. His dimensions of love are staggering. It boggles the mind and imagination.
Think of it: In love, God sent his only Son into the world to die for and save sinners like me. And then, in love, he rescued me from myself.
In her song “Dimensions”, musician Jess Ray describes our inability to understand God’s love and Jesus’ promise to save. I’d quote its beautiful lyrics, but songs are best heard. I recommend a listen.
This side of Heaven, God’s children don’t know much he loves them. I want to. Oh, Lord, please give me the power to understand and accept even a millimeter of your love for me.
God’s love for his children is limitless. It can’t be comprehended with dimensions. They’re not big enough. Hallelujah.