Ephesians 3:17b – 19 “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
My son likes to bring me flowers from the yard. Every spring, as the flowers start poking their heads above ground, I know that I will always have a coffee mug full of fresh wildflowers sitting proudly by my sink. They are a symbol of his love for his mommy, and they fill up my heart.
It is a good thing he brings them to me every day, for when he picks them, he always leaves the roots behind. Without roots, they die. Without roots, they have no way to get the strength and nourishment they need to continue growing and flourishing.
Friends, in the Christian life, we must be rooted in love. We must be so firmly established in love that we will grow tall and wide and high and long. If we aren’t firmly established in love, we will be like my little coffee mug flowers. We may make a small gesture of love now and then, but it won’t last.
It is beautiful that the more we understand how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, the deeper our roots grow in love. And the more firmly our roots are established in love, the more we are able to understand Christ’s love, and the more we are able to share that love with others. It is an exquisite, poetic circle of love that never ends.
We can spend our whole lives trying to grasp the fullness of God’s love for us, but we will never reach the end of it! Christ’s love for us has no end. But the more we try to understand it and live it and establish ourselves in it, the bigger and deeper and wider our roots grow, and God will just keep filling up those roots with more and more of His divine love so that we will be filled to overflowing with it. With abundance like that, we won’t be able to help letting it spill over to everyone we meet. Once those around us have a taste of that wonderful, life-giving love, they will want to become rooted in it themselves.
And the circle continues and continues, but never ends.
Dear Father, Thank You for Your abundant love which reaches out in all directions, and never ends. Help my life to be a reflection of that love.
Amen
For reasons that are (for the moment) too personal to divulge, this has been the longest week of my life. It is fitting that it is Holy Week, because I feel that I too, have been carrying my own cross.
And yet everyday, when I have come here, I have found something, sometimes even only a phrase, which has kept me going. You have certainly been a gift from God this week Renae.
So I thought I had better shout out:
THIS BLOG IS OFFICIALLY KEEPING ME SANE!
Thank you, Jackie. You are a dear.
Am praying that, just as this journey for Christ ended in victory, your journey will have a beautiful, victorious ending as well.
–r