05/28/2020
There is nothing more certain in our lives than the love of God for us in Christ Jesus. Even in our earthly death we remain with Him, and His love remains with us. Though we mourn, and suffer the death of our loved ones, God does not, because they remain in Him, and He in them through His Son Jesus, and the unfathomable depth of His Love for us. Isn’t it wonderful to consider the perfection of Christ, and the love of God? Doesn’t this sooth, and bring comfort to our mourning?
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38-39 ESV
When we lose a loved one we are physically no longer with them, so we mourn, but this is not true of God who continues to know them in death just as He did in life. The fact remains that He knew them, you, and me, from before the earth was formed, and will love us when it ends. We are the product of His unending love, and even when we were yet in our sinful state He loved us enough to make provision for our redemption... through Jesus.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”
Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV
I often tell the story of my father in law who wouldn’t speak to me when I first started dating his daughter. Then one day I went with him to a local barn to shovel manure for his garden, and by the end of that day he was not only speaking to me but treated me as If I were one of his sons. I tell people that you had to earn his love, but once you did... he loved you forever. Our love for one another as men and women has a beginning, and sometimes an end; at its very best we will carry that love into eternity with us, but, God’s love for us has always been, and will always be. We struggle to understand this, and yet it is true...
“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
Psalm 139:15-16 ESV
My father in law, like my father before him, passed from this place into eternity, and it broke my heart because I loved him, and then he was gone from me. The last words I recall him saying to me reflected the love he had for me; he said... “We’ve had a wonderful life haven’t we?” This man had chosen, through my relationship with his daughter, to live his life here with me, and I with him, but unlike our spiritual life, which knows no end, our physical life has a beginning, and an end. So those of us who remain when a loved one goes on are limited in our view, and mourn, but those who believe, and accept the gift of God’s love through Jesus, travel on, seeing and experiencIng His love for eternity. Jesus tells us this...
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
John 5:24 ESV
So are we ready to pass from this life? Are we ready to move through earthly death to eternal life, and live in the presence of God forever? Are we prepared in faith to experience the great mysteries that await us beyond this existence... the least not being God’s love, and the love of those who have proceeded us? Then believe, have faith, and take heart in the eternal reality that awaits us in God’s love.
Today we love for but a while, but I the hands of God, through Jesus Christ, we love forevermore.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your love that has known me, made provision for me, and a life for me. I thank you for pouring it out on me through your Son Jesus Christ; even from before the foundation of the world. I thank you Lord for all those I love here in my earthly life because each is a gift, an image of your love for me, and a taste of what awaits me in eternity. I pray for all those I love, that they accept you as their God, and grow in their faith in Christ. I pray for them so that our love will never fade, and we will embrace one another again at your heavenly table. Help me Father to believe in you more each day, and to grow my faith in Jesus without end. Lead me to you by your love; a love made complete in Jesus. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who loves me more than eternity can contain. Great are you who gives me the ability to share in your love, and to experience it here on earth with my family, friends, and neighbors. I praise your name for all those you have given me to love so dearly, and I thank you for teaching me that my love for them is not predicated on their being here with me, or even their loving me in return. You loved me before I knew you, and I love these who are yet to love me. Hear my prayers Lord for those who are yet to know your Son Jesus, and call out to them through your Holy Spirit so that they will come to know, and love you. Have mercy upon them Father, and lead them to Christ where they can experience your grace forevermore, and your love never ending.
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:43 ESV
Rich Forbes