The Ocean of His Love
Merry Monday
by Parris Bailey
When revival hit us in 1994, I heard the Lord speaking to me about His Love. He showed me that I didn’t understand nor did I comprehend the love of God.
Eph.1:18 in The Message says “you will be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”
It was time for me to go on a great adventure, an adventure of learning how to swim in the ocean of His love. It’s funny, because many times since then, this ocean of love has become a very strong anchor in my life. Another comparison I like to make is the analogy in the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There was a wardrobe that Lucy ventured into and in which she pushed past the coats, into the Land of Narnia where there were talking animals and a horrible witch and wonderful Aslan. I had to learn how to push the back out of my wardrobe. I had been living in the land of the earthlings far too long.
Edwards, when he speaks of heaven, says it like this: “Heaven is the place appointed for the most perfect expressions of complacence and endearment, and full enjoyment of mutual love. And accordingly the souls of departed saints with Christ in heaven, shall have Christ as it were unbosomed unto them, manifesting those infinite riches of love towards them, that have been there from eternity; and they shall be enabled to express their love to him, in an infinitely better manner than ever they could while in the body. Thus they shall eat and drink abundantly, and swim in the ocean of love, and be eternally swallowed up in the infinitely bright, and infinitely mild and sweet beams of divine love; eternally receiving that light, eternally full of it, and eternally compassed round with it, and everlastingly reflecting it back again to the fountain of it.”
Of course this speaks to us about love in the afterlife, but I knew that I could begin to experience His love here and now. It takes an effort on our part of course, a choosing so to speak or a pushing away from the shore. People, families, friendships, and yes even our spouses are but shadows, He is the sun. When Christ becomes unbosomed within us we learn not to place such a high emphasis on our earthly relationships. While they give us pleasure, they will not sustain nor satisfy.
Have you dived into this ocean? Have you plunged its depths, reached forth to the highest heights? Or are you still bound to the elementary emotions and setbacks on planet Earth? The angels told Mary at the tomb of Jesus, “why seek ye the living among the dead”? Go ahead, I dare you. Kick out the back of your wardrobe and experience the unthinkable, unspeakable joy and love everlasting.