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Oceans of Love

ocean

Most of us have stood on the shore of an ocean. I have had the privilege of viewing the Atlantic and Pacific. I have also had the privilege of standing on shores in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

The ocean always leaves me in awe. If I try to fight its waves I lose. I can’t swim across it, I can’t see the other side and I know that I don’t want to descend into its pitch-black depths, without a bathysphere anyway.

Thinking of the immensity and grandeur of the ocean makes me feel tiny by comparison. And it is exactly on this shore that Paul wants each of us to stand. He wants us to try and grasp God’s love. Notice his poetry in Ephesians three,

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

In this literary master work Paul lets us gaze upon the vast ocean of Christ’s love. And whether we stand on the brink of beginning the Christian life or have been on that shore most of our lives we discover that we are still in the initial stages of understanding that love. It is profound, matchless and marvelous and like the ocean, incomprehensible.

As we bath in its warm waves or delve the depths of its riches we are awed by Christ’s tender and awesome love for us. We deserve none of it but are overwhelmed at its infinite capacity and ceaseless waves of care. Though the ocean is salty and has a peculiar smell Christ’s love is sweet and perfectly perfumed by His sacrifice.

You may have already enjoyed a study of 1 Corinthians 13. However, if you haven’t you might want to get your feet wet in its riches and bath in its warmth. It is not normal love described there it is Christ’s love. It is an ocean worth exploring. Our goal is that type of love but our blessing is that Christ demonstrates exactly that love toward you and me. Eat your heart out Jac Cousteau!

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