By Lisa S. Tarno

It’s been over a year that I have prayed in earnest, “Help me Lord to be firmly rooted, grounded and established in your love for me and to comprehend it, as it is hard to comprehend, but help me comprehend this love so I can be filled to the fullness of life and power that comes from You…then as Your Word states, I will be made complete.” (Adaptation of Ephesians 3:17-19) Yes, more of that please!

As I unpack this, a couple of different word pictures have helped to guide me. First the ocean. I remember being on the beach in California and walking along the shore of the Pacific Ocean. It was beautiful, majestic, powerful and massive and it dawned on me…this is just but ONE ocean and God created it. It is full of life and power and force…and where I stood on the sand, I felt so small in comparison. The things that concerned me in life seemed minuscule as I focused on the vast sea that seemed to go on in perpetuity. It really put things in perspective. God created this! God is in control of this! What could possibly compare to this? “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 (Emphasis mine) This verse resonated in my thoughts…

Another word picture is one we all take for granted…flying in airplanes and looking out the window. Whether the scenery below is a patchwork of fields in geometric shapes or white capped mountains or the foaming white sea caps below, flying at 30,000 feet is amazing. It too puts life into perspective getting a birds eye view of things. And the thought came that God is positioned higher…”For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher then your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 Then couple that with “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 (Emphasis mine)

There are plenty more earthly perspective visual aides to emphasize the total breadth and depth of the concept of God’s wide, long, high and deep love. These are but two! Yet, our minds are just too finite as scripture indicates “[God’s love] is too great to understand fully.” Eph. 3:19 

Upon reading a Bible Study book, there was a sentence that preceded a well known Colossians scripture and it said, “Your sin doesn’t make you bad. It makes you dead,” ~Lou Giglio This is referencing Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But, I have never heard it stated like Mr. Giglio wrote it. 

The Colossians 2:13-15 scripture says, “You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away.” (TLB)

Along with Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Susie Larson writes in “Your Powerful Prayer” book, “We weren’t in need of a slight upgrade, a makeover, or a temporary loan to get us on our feet again. We were destined for hell. Dying in our sins. Totally incapable of saving ourselves. And in that place of our utter and desperate need- while our selfishness, sinfulness and pride remained in full swing- Christ died for us.” (Page 80)

This love of God is a sacrificial love by the likes we will never comprehend because it took a PERFECT sacrifice, Jesus, to blot out the sin stain of humankind. In an obscure Christmas song, “How Many Kings,” the lyrics in the chorus read, “How many kings step down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? And how many gods have poured out their hearts to romance a world that is torn all apart? How many fathers gave up their sons for me? Only one did that for me!” 

The reason I believe we will never fully comprehend this great love is because we are not a PERFECT Father God who ransomed His PERFECT and SINLESS Son, Jesus for all of humankind to have eternal life and relationship with Him. There is no equal or match. As much as I pray to comprehend it fully, I resolve that I will only fathom in part. My aspirations were noble but not attainable as I humbly concede, I am not God and don’t have the capacity in my humanness to understand…only to be grateful. FOREVER GRATEFUL!

I am left with a sense of awe and wonder of His great love. May I in some part of my human life love in a way that is beautiful, endearing, wonderful and everlasting. I look to Him as my role model!