Surrounded by Christ’s Love

We left Orlando at 7:45 a.m. this morning and arrived back in Denver at 9:30 a.m. The trip went smooth and well for which we were glad. When we returned home I took a nap (Debbie should have – she’s been fighting a cold) and then mowed the lawn. We made it to our Saturday evening church service, but by the end of the evening I was feeling like my body was till on east coast time.

During our last day in the pool, Nathan took a few underwater pictures. I wanted to include one, because as I looked at it I noticed that Carter has his mouth wide open and grandpa has puffed out checks like a blow fish. I guess you can tell who is more comfortable in the water.

 BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:17-19

I recall memorizing these verses as a teenager. I can still remember repeating, breath, length, height, depth. Soon my rote memorization gave way to a sense of wonder as I realized that these dimensions describe being surrounded by God’s love. God’s love is the soil in which we are planted, it is the air we breathe, it is the key to experiencing the “fullness of God.”

It is difficult to speak about and understand God’s love, because human love is all that we have as a context. And human love no matter how sincere and mature falls short of God’s love, making it difficult to have a context we can relate to.

This “knowing of Christ’s love” is not instinctive knowledge, it is knowledge that is attained through experience. As Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, we “come to know” the vastness of God’s love. As we fail and God picks us up, as we sin and God forgives, we come to know God’s love, because we have experienced God’s love, not just studied God’s love or have been taught about God’s love. That is how we “know the love Christ that surpasses knowledge…”

As I review these verses the phrase, “…have strength to comprehend with all the saints…” gets my attention. I believe we find that community, the community of  God’s people is one of the key ways in which we discover the love of God. We see God’s love in action for others, we see God’s love in action in worship, we see God’s love in action in the dedication of people’s lives. We can’t fully appreciate and know God’s love outside of community. That is not because people are perfect, it is just the opposite. As we rub shoulders with imperfect people it provides us the opportunity to, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

The goal is to be “filled with all the fullness of God.” That only happens through faith, through the work of God’s Spirit and understanding the we live life surrounded by the love of Christ. No wonder Paul said, “nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

Remember: human love doesn’t help us understand or know Christ’s love – knowing Christ’s love enables us to love God and others as He would have us to.