Heart to heart feet off the ground

I used to play a game with my son, Michael, when he was little.  I would say, "Do you know how much I love you?"  And he would say, "No, how much?"  And I would say, "As big as the sky!"  And then he would say, "Mommy, do you know how much I love you?"  And I would say, "No, how much?"  And he would say, "As big as the back yard!"  For someone two feet tall our back yard was really big.  And I would say, "Michael, do you know how much I love you?"  And he would say, "How much?"  And I would say, " As big as the whole world!" And we would keep on going for a bit until one of us said, "As big as the Universe!"  Usually that was me because Michael knew what was coming next. I would fling open my arms and hug my little boy with a heart-to-heart, feet right off the ground and into the sky kind of hug!  Ya'll know what I mean?

Well, I started thinking about Jesus and Who He is-as I said a few days ago, I really want to set my mind on the Love of the gospel message-the love of God and the love of Jesus.  So, where to start?  The beginning seemed like a good place.  If I am going to get this love, really get it, I need to understand where Jesus came from.  The beginning of the love story between Jesus and man is what I set my mind on. 

As I was pondering this, I found a book I haven't looked at in a while called The Hand of God, Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe.  This book has pictures from the Hubble Telescope of many of the wonders in our Universe and a whole lot of quotes from those who look into the heavens and from those who try to make sense of what they observe.  I don't want to get into the various philosophies presented-is God revealed in the Universe, can religion and science co-exist, and what about the Big Bang or the theory of quantam mechanics as it pertains to God?  If you want a really great spot to go to for those kinds of discussions, check out Ravi Zacharias website: http://www.rzim.org/.  More to the point-reviewing this book and looking at the pictures and quotes made me stop and think.  I mean, since I do believe in eternity, and I do believe that the Biblical predictions of the Old Testament came true in Christ and that the Biblical predictions in the New Testament will likewise come true in Christ, the pictures gave me an appreciation for the Heavens!  The bigness and vastness of creation are manifested there in mind boggling array!

Swirls of stars, cosmic plumes of dust, unreachable planets, comets, black holes, pulsars, icey domains and firey furnaces fill our Universe and its many solar systems.  You can go and look at the Hubble Telescope website: http://hubblesite.org/ and see the most amazing pictures like these and yet, we still haven't seen to the end of the Universe and we never will.  Remember that word "grandiose?"  The Universe is definitely grandiose! What power and intelligence and creative beauty is manifested in its creation.

And the God who designed it all was in the beginning of it all. In the first book of John is one of those astonishing passages for it gives us an infinite peak into the beginning of all that we can discover or experience:  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)"  So God was not alone!  He was with the Word when He created our universe and all it contains.  It begs you to ask the question...who?...doesn't it?  Who is the "Him" of this passage; who is the "Word" that was with God?  And then John answers that question:  "There was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him.  but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1: 9-14).

"I am the Word, the truth and the life," said Jesus of Himself.

So, the Word stepped out of the eternal, creative being who was with God, who created the Universe, and left that vision, that glory, that wonder, and that power to become flesh, to become limited in time and space.  Oh what a beginning!  How incomparable is our Savior.   How vast is the depth of His love for us!  It's a real heart-to-heart feet off the ground and into the sky kind of love!