"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8).
"...how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ," (Ephesians 3:18). Is it possible to even understand this verse? I think even with the full knowledge of the Bible it is impossible to understand His love fully.
Let me try to impart to you how God feels about you.
"...and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). When God made everything but man he called it good. Then He made man in his own image and it was very good. God saw us as very good while everything else was just good. What is more is He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. It does not say whether this was an everyday occurrence, but it was for the sake of walking with these two simple humans that He came down and walked in the gardens. He found delight in being with his creation. Like a mother first viewing her child, God was in awe of his creation from the very beginning. He loved us. There was this incredible strong bond. A bond, which even now is not altogether tied back together.
Imagine the pain when he found that bond severed. It says in the Bible no one can see the face of God and live (Exodus 34:20). Our sin is too much. This must bring pain to God that we can not speak to Him face to face. We were made for greater things than a shaky treaty with the most high. We were made to be friends of God.
Let us continue...
God didn't kill Adam or Eve. He could have. That would have been the easiest solution. He didn't kill them because he loved them to much.
It goes on...
He continues to pursue his people. When the land went corrupt he kept one human and his family alive to continue the legacy.
Later he hand picked Abram, soon to be Abraham, to become the father of a nation who he would personally teach about himself. He began to mend the rip that separated us from His presence.
Israel became a kind of prophet, or ambassador, if you will, to the glory of God. It is only a loving God who would reveal himself so fully.
And then...
As we all know, God made a plan. He showed the desperation of sin and what it does through the bloody sacrifice of lambs, goats, doves, and so on.
He began to change the way humans viewed God.
Like a man pursuing a woman, God pursued us.
Finally, God used his final ace. He sent his son to us to be the final sacrifice. Of course, it would have been easy to just go down and sacrifice himself right away. But, I think God had a longing to once again walk face to face with his beloved humans. So, he stayed thirty years, being reared up from the form of a babe to a strapping man. He joked with his disciples, hugged his mother, and teased his little sisters. He celebrated weddings, and he mourned deaths. Jesus became fully human.
It was only after, did he lay his life down and suffer a horrendous death. Still, I wonder why He did not go under a sharp sword instead, or even a stone. No, he went to the cross, one of the most excruciating deaths there are.
He did this, showing the absolute degradation of a sin. It is not something to be taken lightly. For us. For our wrongs, he did this. That is the greatness of God's love. "While we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Can anyone else on earth say they would go for such turmoil for another one of our species. I seriously doubt it.
God be praised.
Amen
