by Ray Burow

Created on: October 29, 2010   Last Updated: November 08, 2010

Jimmy Stewart’s character in the legendary Christmas story, “A Wonderful Life”, makes an impossible, yet heartfelt remark to his soon to be wife; “Wish for the moon Mary and I will lasso it down for you.” This was perhaps the most romantic statement in the movie, but we all knew, that even Jimmy Stewart couldn’t wrestle the moon to earth.  Neither could any other cowboy. Grasping the love of God is much the same. In fact, George Bailey would have better luck at acquiring the moon for Mary, than this writer has of explaining the depths of God’s love.

Writer and composer, Frederick Lehman, came as close as anyone can to describing the ‘love of God’, in a hymn by the same name.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Even Lehman’s description, points to the reality that God’s love is beyond understanding. The primary reason His love is unfathomable is due to the fact that we are mere humans. The earthly love we experience and enjoy does not come close to the purity of God’s love. It is a mere imitation, and a poor one at that. Perhaps it is on this basis that humans make the most incredibly incorrect assessments about God’s love; the most common being; “God is love so he would never send anyone to hell.”

Beginning with Genesis and on through the book of Revelation, God’s Word is full of references to His love. However, love is not His primary characteristic. It is not the quality on which all His other attributes are hung. In other words; God is not more loving than He is just, than He is good, than He is powerful etc. God’s is omnipotent. His omniscience is present in all His attributes. They are equally great and are not exclusive from one another.  A loving God is also a just God, as evidenced in the story of Adam and Eve.

A loving God placed Adam and Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden. He gave them charge over every living thing He had created, with only one exception. God commanded Adam with these words, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) The rest is biblical

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