When my niece Gina was very little we would engage in that familiar exchange you have with children you're crazy about. I asked her one day, "Do you know how much I love you?"
She looked at me with eager and excited expectation.
"All the way to the sky," I said.
She climbed into my lap. "Well, I love you all the way to the ocean," she said.
"Oh yeah?" I squeezed her tight and tickled her gently. "Well, I love you all the way to heaven."
"Well, I love you..." she began, then, "I love... I love you..." She contemplated her answer most intensely. Finally, taking a deep breath, she said, "I love you all the way to K-Mart in the toy department."
The two of us laughed and laughed. Gina thought she had given me the biggest and best possible answer.
We humans want desperately to express the love we feel. Passionately, we give it a color, a taste, a word, an action that will assure the other person we've given all we've got.
But we are limited. Our time, our emotions, our expressions can only reach so far and so deep. After my precious encounter with Gina I was reminded of the Lord's love. What a lavish God we serve. His expressions of love and commitment to us are limitless. He keeps every promises He makes. His giving is never-ending - an eternal foundation, flowing forever. His life pours into us as we open ourselves to him. His love is unconditional. Faithful.
"For I am convinced that 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 seperate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
Know how much He loves you this day. Don't mistake your ability to love or to understand with his ability to love and understand. I suppose if you told Jesus, "I love you all the way to..." He would answer back that he loved you all the way to the cross - and that He'll continue to love you throughout eternity.
CK