"I stood there still and stared before me with total awe. How could a water body be so vast? I wondered! No, vast was a word far too small, it was even vaster than vast. I yelled to a friend next to me ”Can you believe it??” She too had a wide smile on her face. Having been born and raised in a landlocked country, seeing an ocean for the first time was an over the moon experience. I admired the mere beauty of it, I was amazed at how wide it spread to the horizon and how the big ships looked as if they were touching the sky. I loved the feel of a cool breeze blowing across my skin, I observed the beauty of waves running towards my feet, hitting one another and taking up a different course. Written by Sharmila Dungana
I do not remember seeing the ocean for the first time - probably like my girls, I was a few weeks old. I do not take it for granted because it really does mean so much to me. I do not get in the boat or on the beach that I do not thank God for the salt water and the connection it holds to my faith. I could try to explain the beauty of the ocean to someone but until they see it themselves, they cannot fully understand it. The same is true of God's love. Until we actually possess it, no one can describe how wonderful it is to us. Jeremiah 31: 3, “The Lord appeared to us in the past saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”
As I looked at the Pacific Ocean from the cliff I was standing on, I thought of the vastness of the ocean. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the world ocean basins. Covering approximately 63 million square miles and containing more than half of the free water on Earth, all of the world's continents could fit into the Pacific basin. And God loves us more than that! We are like the Bee Gee’s wondering, “how deep is your love?” I like the lyrics, “You're the light in my deepest, darkest hour, You're my savior when I fall. How deep is your love? I really mean to learn.” We need to learn God’s Word about how deep His love is for us. Ephesians 3: 18, “...may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…”
Romans 5: 8, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we know that God loved us enough to let His Son die for us, it is impossible for us to understand this. Because it is impossible to see the ocean’s entirety in one glance, people often think of the ocean’s vastness when thinking of God’s immeasurable love. That sort of love is not known on this earth.
In the early 1900's there was a mighty Welch revival in Wales. This hymn, “Here is Love Vast as the Ocean. “This precious hymn flowed from the overflowing love of the Spirit on people’s hearts. Its human author was Willian Rees” and its glorious lyrics were as follows:
I want to be so lost in you
And have my heart be pure and true
That when they come and look for me
It's Christ alone that they shall see
Look into the depths of me
Is it Christ my Lord you see?
Walk with me along the way
Have you walked with Christ today?
Listen to me share my heart
Do you wanna be a part
Of Christ the Lord my risen King
And to His throne your treasures bring
When I'm caught up in the waves
Can you see the Christ that saves?
When all the world has turned on me
Is it Christ that they shall see?
When it's time for me to die
Will I raise my hands on high?
And sing aloud with all my might
Of Christ my King, a glorious sight”
God’s Love is vast like the ocean. It is a force that humans cannot control. It fills every space and leaves no voids. You have a choice to make. Are you in or out? If you make a commitment to go all in, you will live a life in joy, living in God’s Presence. God is love and His love endures forever!
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