The vast reach of God

Morning Devotion October 19th Psalm 103; Isaiah 52:7-10

An interesting connection jumped out at me in the readings this morning. A connection which highlights the vast reach of God. Too often we have, as JB Phillips said, “made God too small”, we have limited Him to our ability and not recognised the omnipresence and omnipotence of the Almighty

In the psalm we read of height and depth and width. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

His love has height and depth – it reaches from the highest high to the lowest low. We have yet to fathom those limits – where is the edge of space? What is the deepest part of the sea? And yet God’s love touches both extremities. There is no place where we can hide from it – who would want to anyway? But there are those who do … those who fear Him in a different way from those who love Him. Those who love God have a awesome appreciation of His majesty and glory. Those who are afraid of Him pretend they have no fear but their bravado only highlights their concern for the judgement (which they pretend to deny) and their lack of understanding of the extent of God’s love.

In John 13, the apostle say (my summary), “Jesus wanting to show the full extent of His love, got up from the table, took off His outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples feet.” Huh! That’s the full extent of God’s love? Well, yes, and that is why so few understand it – it reaches from the highest high to the lowest low – from the Majesty of Heaven to a servant washing feet. The King of Glory gently takes our dirty feet and softly and tenderly bathes them until we are clean.

And our sin is removed from us as far as the east is from the west – you can’t get any further than that. We haven’t reached the end of the universe yet, but it is there. We have probed the depth of the ocean but we know that there is a deepest point. But, how far west do you go until you get to the east? So far has our God removed our transgressions from us – because His love has reached from heaven to earth!

And is this love limited, does this forgiveness have parameters? No! As Isaiah says, “the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God”. There is no limit other than our choice not to receive the free gift of life and love and forgiveness offered by the nail scarred hands which wash our feet.