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The Wonder of His Love

Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

Chapter One

We love because he first loved us.
I John 4:19

Love could not be contained. Love compelled Him. Love had to create life.

So He hurled countless galaxies into space and saturated the heavens with planets and stars. Then Love burst forth on the earth. He stored up symphonies in the throats of songbirds, splashed masterpieces across mountains, slipped secret paintings inside shells.

All that He spoke into being, all that Love created, was for you.

You were His motivation. When God created the heavens and the earth, He thought of you ... and then worked backwards. He sprinkled stars in the sky so that you could lie on a quilt on summer evenings and watch them flicker. He blew gardenia-scented breezes to kiss your face and unleashed thundering waterfalls to awaken your soul. He formed hidden reefs, secret worlds of unimagined beauty, and tucked them away in the oceans for you to explore.

He filled the earth with beauty to make His love visible. "In order that we finite beings may apprehend the Emperor," Charles Williams wrote, "He translates His glory into multiple forms-into stars, woods, waters, beasts, and the bodies of men." Man was not just the final item on a divine to-do list. Man is the pièce de résistance, the coup de grâce, the grand finale.

Before God imagined the galaxies or invented history, He dreamed of us. Infinite Love thought first of companionship; He created us for relationship with Him. After He hung the stars and the moon, spread the fields with flowers, draped the forests with green canopies, and filled the air with fragrance and music, He prepared a special place where He could have fellowship with His greatest creation.

A garden was our first home. Eden was an earthly paradise, perfect and bountiful, a brilliant reflection of the nature and love of God. In this Garden, in this shimmering, misty jewel, He wrote the message of His love, and when everything was ready, He created us from dust and bone.

For a time, all was well in Paradise. Our parents, Adam and Eve, walked with Him and talked with Him. There was intimacy between created and Creator. They were His own. Then sin entered the Garden, and with it came the Fall in every individual life. Our sin severed the relationship with Him for which we were created.

But God loved us so much that He was not willing to let us go. He still wanted fellowship with us. He still yearned for companionship and intimacy with us. Love could not give up on His beloved. "For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own" (1 Samuel 12:22).

God had a plan to redeem His creation, so in His love He sent His Son to earth. God expressed His love to us in a garden, first in Eden ... and then in another garden, Gethsemane, to show that He was still Emmanuel, God with us. Christ, the new Adam, came to undo the damage of Eden. "It cost God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things," C. S. Lewis wrote, "but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion."

What kind of God is this who would not give up on such wayward, sinful people? What kind of God would send His only Son to die so we could live with Him forever? What kind of God would create galaxies, angels, and natural wonders ... and yet stoop to love us?

"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isaiah 40:25-26, 28

Our God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and everything He does comes from His inexhaustible love. "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies" (Psalm 36:5). The One who created the cosmos created me. The One who knows everything about the universe knows everything about me. The One who sustains all things sustains me.

* He sets planets in space ... and plants dreams deep within my soul.

* He spreads deserts with sand ... and sprinkles me with His cleansing blood.

* He decrees rulers and thrones ... and proclaims my heart His resting place.

* He erases nations from the earth ... and wipes every tear from my eye.

* He thunders in the tempest ... and whispers love songs to my heart.

* He covers my sin ... and unveils Himself to me.

In mountains and woods and rocks, I see God's footprint. In ocean waves and whispered winds, I hear His voice. In gusts through pines and warm desert breezes, I feel His hand on my cheek. And in a fiery sunset, I glimpse the glory of His robe.

This God of creation, the Sovereign of the universe, wants to be with us. Though we have rebelled against Him, He offers to redeem us. Though we have distanced ourselves, He invites us into fellowship. Love initiated all creation, and Love initiated our redemption. And in eternity to come, as we walk together through wondrous new creations, we will stand in perpetual awe of the wonder of His love.

* * *

Lord, I marvel that Your love is so great that even heaven could not contain it. It burst forth everywhere-in nature, mankind ... and my heart. You have become the unutterable sigh in the depth of my soul. Your love initiated everything. I could not seek You unless You first sought me. I love You only because You first loved me. Yet try as I may, my capacity to love You is but a millionth degree of Your unfathomable love for me. Help me to grasp the wonder of Your great love! Amen

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Wonder of His Love by Nancy Stafford Copyright © 2004 by Nest, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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