God's Love Like a Flood

Yesterday, I was flying back home and thinking about the Love of God.  I had been reading through some of my earlier blog entries and reflecting on how the Gospel is really introducing people to the fact that God loves them and wants a relationship with them.  It really is very simple, and somehow we have made it s complex.  

I was thinking about how people often experience this rush of God's Love when they come to salvation.  We can often associate this "rushing in" feeling with what God's love should feel like, and when we don't continue to feel it, we think that some how God ha left us or no longer present to the same degree.  The truth is that God is all around us and we are now living a life where we can experience His love at all times.

As I was reflecting on this I imagined the Love of God being like floodwaters, and people who haven't heard the Gospel, like a door shut to that flood.  The role of those of us who are representing the Love of God, is to show them that the floodwaters on the other side are love, not judgment!  I was reminded of how when I opened the door of my heart to the Lord, how I was overwhelmed by His Love!  I was aware of His love in a way I had never experienced, and there was absolutely no judgment!  

Once the door is opened, the love of God fills us completely, if we let it do so.  That initial rush was God's love pouring into our lives filling the emptiness that is supposed to be filled with His presence.  The truth is that we were made to know God and His love for us, we were made for intimacy with Him.  We are meant to be in relationship with Him, and it is where we are fulfilled.  Using the imagery of the floodwaters, we are created to live underwater, completely enveloped by the Love of God.

As I think about that this morning, that imagery of flood waters is actually quite rich.  People don't want flood waters in their homes (lives) for they mess everything up, at the very least, and are capable of great destruction. We fear that type of ruin and change as well as the lack of control, and unknown.  We fear what we don't know, fear that which requires change, and have heard that God is angry and hates our sins, and can only imagine that He hates us for all of it.

The Gospel, in its simplicity is stated by Jesus in his dialogue with Nicodemus, where he says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17 NIV).  The impetus for Jesus coming to earth is love!  

The truth is that God has known us and loved us since before the creation of the world.  He sees everything about us from that vantage point, outside of time, and still loves us.  His love doesn't change based on our actions, His Love is eternally set.  God doesn't change His mind about us based on our present circumstances, character, sin, or unbelief!  His love is like an immense ocean just waiting to pour into our lives that we might be filled and realize we were created for this very existence, lives saturated with His love, and filled with His Spirit!   

I am reminded of a couple of verses from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 NIV:

[1] The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. [2] He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. 

[3] As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. [4] He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. [5] He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in---a river that no one could cross. [6] He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” 

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. [7] When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. [8] He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. [9] Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. 

[12] Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing. ”

My prayer today is that I might learn how to share the Love of God wit those that I meet, that they might experience this Love for themselves, and that they might be healed of their fear.  I pray that we, as the Church, might better represent the Love of God, not the judgment of God.  I pray that all those whose lives are dry and devoid of the experience of God's Love, might be filled to overflowing!  

Amen and Amen!