God Loves You To The Earth And Back

There's a loving phrase that people may say to their child or spouse... " I love you to the moon and back." This phrase conveys an unconditional, boundless, steadfast love for another person. There is one love that is greater than this and that is the love of God who loves each one us "to the earth and back".

Take a moment to consider the greatness of this love. God, who is in Heaven, sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to earth. Jesus gave up everything to be born in the flesh...a helpless baby boy. He dwelled on earth with no prestige, no honor, no wealth.

We read in Philippians 2:7-8,
"He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!"

He came from Heaven to earth to save us! The angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21 that Mary "will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Can we grasp the immenseness of this love? How many of us would give up everything in this life...family, children, friends, house, career, and lifestyle to be born a helpless baby to a teenage mother? Then grow up through childhood and through the teenage years with parents and adults telling you what to do...and live in a completely different culture. In addition to all of this, your fate is to die at age 33 in a torturous death. And that death is for sinners, all of whom have done you wrong, even the ones who loved you.

Wow, that is a love that none of us could ever give. That love was and is forever and completely boundless, unconditional and steadfast.

That love not only comes from Heaven to earth, but it returns back up to heaven. Jesus tells us in John 14:2-3,
"My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

Jesus is preparing a place for each one of us...to take us to be with him in Heaven for all eternity.

God has done all of this through his Son because he loves us as we read in John 3:16-17,

"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."

Praise God who came down from Heaven to dwell with us, to give up everything for us and save us so we can go up to Heaven to be with Him forever as his sons and daughters. That is a love that only God can give...a love that is to the earth and back.
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