So Much More Than Love!
May, 2021
My Dear Friends:
In May we have in the past celebrated Mother’s Day and our anniversary. But I did promise something else for this month, and want to fulfill that by answering why? Why God is so interested in us? Why this vast universe seems made for us? And then; why redemption? King David asked much the same question, “What is man that thou are mindful of him, and the son of man that thou does care for him?” (Psa. 8:4). However, David doesn’t provide an answer to why, instead he gives us wonderful expressions on how God has blessed us. It is all quite inspiring, yet the question still lingers. Just why does God care for us? And why did He send His “only begotten” to die, that we might live?
As Christians we are generally bathed in the reason, unless one has been immersed in one of the legalistic and unforgiving segments of our faith. For it is found in the opening phrase of that beloved verse; “God so loved the world, that He gave…” (Jn.3:16). That is exactly why all this; His love! His very essence is suffused with love. A love that we cannot fully even imagine, but one day it will overwhelm all our senses. Yet, this still seem too simple. For when Job asked his questions he is challenged as to his competence to even understand (Jb.38-40). When God answers Habakkuk’s also rather simple question he finds it necessary to pray that God “in His wrath remember mercy” (Hab.3:2). And when Isaiah sees the majesty of God he can only cry, “I am a man of unclean lips…in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa.6:5).
This is all part of our faith and understandable. Yet, when I see Hosea’s anguish, I feel here is revealed the heart of God. “What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early…I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos.6:4,6). Hosea’s entire unhappy life was a living sermon. That in Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness God remained steadfast in His love, just as had Hosea with Gomer. This only adds a more profound element to what this is all about. Our Lord and God has gone to profound and lengthy effort, incredible and excruciating pain; for us. Once God gave up on mankind, saving only eight souls and destroying all the others. He surely would be justified in doing so again, and actually we are told He will, “when people say, ‘there is peace and security, ‘then sudden destruction will come upon them…and there will be no escape” (1 Th.5:3).
Yet, despite this promised “wrath,” we are told those He cares for will escape (1 Th.5:9). That like Jacob we are loved, despite a myriad of flaws! Jacob was loved because he desired God’s blessings and what the Lord had promised, even if he understood it only in part. This while Esau considered it not worth a bowl of soup. That promise is that before God created time and space, before the earth was formed, before anything was that would be, He foreknew, and chose those that would be His own; for eternity. He made this vast universe, with billions and billions of galaxies, stretching billions of light years into space, almost fourteen to be exact. All this, the physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, all so finely tuned and balanced, and it seem so just that we might exist. There is literally no rational or scientific reason for us to be here at all. Yet the entire universe appears “created ” just for us. And His creation is so astonishingly complex and detailed that it defies any explanations save Divine design.
It comes down simply to this; you are, “beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Th.2:13-14). Absorb all this carefully; we are “beloved” of God, and “chosen,” long before creation, to be “saved,” by being sanctified by God’s “Spirit,” as we believe in “truth” and the “gospel,” which is Jesus Christ, all that we might join in His “glory.” It is all about a love beyond space and time, a love that has sought us, bought us, bringing to nought all that oppose, and so brought us to Himself in His glory, a glory that will remake all creation.
Oh what love, what marvelous love, that saves you and I,
Thomas Randolf Wyatt
I lacked the room to add this from Isaiah; “Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nought, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing” (Isa.40:21-23). This is such an astonishing word from God, and describes accurately His creation, but also places everything in perspective. The desires of “princes” and their intentions are as nothing to our Lord. We need to appreciate that His purpose will be accomplished, for it has been in play since the very beginning. He cares for you. In your times of affliction, pain, chaos, even fear He is ever so near. And we here at the Wings of Healing are here for you. I hope, as you pray, that you would remember me, our efforts for our Lord, and the needs of so many others. I also want to hear from you, and whatever your need might be. Our phone number is toll free (888) 676-3806. And I consider it a privilege to take each of your needs to the Lord. And I have fellowshipped with many of you on the phone, as we minister constantly in our correspondence with so many of you, so do write.
