The Immeasurable Love of God

We’re big on measuring things. In America we resist the metric system, but we have a “meter” for everything: odometers, thermometers, barometers, speedometers. We measure our trips in miles and hours, our height in feet and inches, our girth in pounds (and sighs). At school we measure grades; at work we measure productivity, at church we measure attendance and offerings.

We keep track of sales goals and voter polls, salaries and calories, horsepower and miles per hour. We measure blue jeans and TV screens, package weights and interest rates, fat grams and Virginia hams. We determine an individual’s maturity by adding up birthdays. A rule of thumb in business declares, “If it can’t be measured, it doesn’t matter.”

We’re uncomfortable with anything we cannot measure.

What about God’s love? In Ephesians 3:18, the apostle Paul prays that God’s people “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

How wide is God’s love? Broad enough to encompass every era in human history. Expansive enough to override political and religious barriers. Spacious enough to embrace very age group, language group, and ethnic group on earth. Ample enough to forgive sin without cheapening justice. Wide enough to take a diverse array of men, women, boys and girls who have next to nothing in common and make them one in Christ.

How long is it? So long it stretches into eternity. So long it reaches back to Adam and forward to the final judgment—back to the days of our ancestors and forward to the days of our great-grandchildren—back to Christ’s death and forward to his return.

How high is it? Taller than a redwood tree, loftier than a mountain peak, elevated above the moon and sun. God’s love “reaches to the heavens” and his “faithfulness to the skies” (Psalm 36:5). It soars beyond the farthest galaxy, beyond the reach of our strongest telescope, beyond what mortal eyes can see.

How deep is it? According to Geology.com, the North Pacific’s Mariana Trench contains the deepest point in the earth’s oceans, some 35,840 feet below sea level. If Mount Everest were placed at this location it would be covered by a mile of water. Yet, God’s cavernous love is so vast that he will “hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

“God loves you.” Who can measure the impact of those simple words? God not only “so loved the world,” he so loves you. You are not a mistake or a miscalculation. You are not an afterthought, an oversight, or an underdog. You are not a nobody on your way to nowhere. You don’t have to be a lone wolf or a lost sheep.

In Christ you are not forgotten or forsaken, but forgiven. You are not worthless, but worthwhile. Life is not pointless, but purposeful. The one who created the universe places infinite value on you. He considers you a treasure worthy of his personal attention and sacrifice.

No mind can comprehend it, no scale can measure it, and no price-tag can determine its value, but it’s true. “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).