An invitation to come and consider
the lavish,
generous,
abundant heart of God
In the beginning….
God planned for us to BE, to live, to love, to experience the wonders of life to the fullest. God created the heavens and the earth – all things have been created by Him and for Him.
He didn’t have to give us the arrays of beauty in the color wheel, all the hues and nuanced brights and darks. He didn’t have to offer us the bright hopeful colors of sunrises and the calming beauty of sunsets – of the skies and majestic mountains and wonders of nature…
But He did.
He didn’t have to give us all the sounds of the ocean, and rivers, and birds singing, and crickets chirping and hyenas laughing and mules braying and kittens purring; and what about the flowing poetry and lilting music in all its forms and glory and how it expresses that which our hearts can barely speak …
But He did.
He didn’t have to provide all the amazing smells around us – the scents of each individual flower, the ability to copy and transform them into fragrant perfumes and candles; the spices and herbs that are not only medicinal but tempt our senses and prepare our palates ….
But He did.
He didn’t have to provide all the wonders of food. We literally could just be filled up and head out like cars, without all the myriads of taste and textures from each corner of the world. Sauces and sweets and savories and you name it- things that tingle and crunch and provide smooth creamy ‘heavenly’ tastes for our pleasure.
But He did.
He didn’t have to give us the human bonds of brotherhood and the sweet lullabies of motherhood as we gently plant sweet kisses on the heads of babies, our hearts swelling full of love….or a shoulder of comfort to lean on and offer strength or a hug as a token of friendship and love.
But He did.
He didn’t have to create humans in His image so we could relate and respond and commune with Him like none other in creation. He didn’t have to design a space for our spirits to rise in worship or a place to lament in healthy ways as we experience the challenges of life in a broken world….or minds to reason and invent and expand in our knowledge of our world.
But He did.
When Adam and Eve made a choice to listen to a voice other than His, to trust the words of the father of lies rather than the Father of Life, He could have chosen to never speak again.
But He didn’t.
When the first created people sinned and set the stage and then all people followed in the same dark, destructive path, He could have written us off, scrapped His desire for intimacy with His created ones, and began anew.
But He didn’t.
He didn’t have to provide us with the life of His Son to live with and among us and show a life of example, of purity, of wholeness of grace and truth, performing miracles and lifting our eyes and spirits heavenward. In His righteousness and holiness, He could have destined us to a deserved judgment of eternal death in hell.
But He didn’t.
In His love, He lavishly demonstrated it toward us while we were yet sinners –
As if that wasn’t enough, we were given His Son who offered not only His life on earth, but His life in death as a sacrifice to rescue us in ways we desperately needed but had no way to achieve.
And if that wasn’t enough, His Son who rose in victory over our enemy Satan, the ravages of the broken world, the curse of sin, and shame and death – He also sent to us the Holy Spirit to not only be WITH us but to be WITHIN us, never to leave. He not only promises never to abandon us, but also provides comfort, strength, discernment, hope, conviction, teaching and leading us further into the image of Jesus. And so much more.
And if that wasn’t enough, we are offered eternal life in heaven, where God lives, where there is only light and life and love and purpose and joy and peace and no pain or sickness or sin or death.
And this is only what we know about this mysterious, incomprehensible, loving, yet eternal God who lives in infinite revelation of His holiness and character.
There is so much more yet to be revealed than what we already know.
“Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey Him, and who gratefully recognize the benefits that He has bestowed].”
For God has unveiled them and revealed them to us through the [Holy] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things [diligently], even [sounding and measuring] the [profound] depths of God [the divine counsels and things far beyond human understanding]. For what person knows the thoughts and motives of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So also no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak of these things, not in words taught or supplied by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual thoughts with spiritual words [for those being guided by the Holy Spirit]. 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 AMP