"Here is love, vast as the ocean, Lovingkindness as the flood, When the Prince of Life, our Ransom, Shed for us His precious blood. Who His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise? He can never be forgotten, Throughout Heav’n’s eternal days.”
– William Rees 1802-1883
This past week I had the pleasure to celebrate fifteen years of marriage to my beautiful and wise wife, Denise. I most definitely married out of my league when I convinced her to spend the rest of our lives together. To celebrate our anniversary we decided to stow away on a cruise to the Bahamas. It was wonderful! Spending twenty four hours with the love of my life and having unlimited access to all sorts of culinary delights while being disconnected from the concerns of life on the mainland. Priceless! Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I love to watch the sunset. There is something captivating about watching the final moments of the sun before embarks on it’s journey to the opposite side of our globe. There is a peace and finality that the sunset pronounces. A eleven-story cruise liner isolated in the middle of the open ocean may be the perfect place to view this spectacular exclamation of God’s handiwork. There are no buildings, traffic, trees, or obstacles to obstruct the view. It is a front row seat to nature’s symphony of praise to her creator. As Denise and I stood on the top deck watching the sun retreat from our view, my thoughts were captivated by the vastness of the ocean, the seeming endlessness of the horizon, and my own insignificance in comparison. Our worship song “Here is Love” began to resonate in my thinking, “Here is love vast as the ocean, Loving kindness as the flood, When the Prince of Life our Ransom shed for us His precious blood, precious blood” I was struck by the beautiful metaphor of God’s unfathomable love that was unfolding before my very eyes. We all should be struck by the vastness of God’s love, the endlessness of His grace and mercy, and our utter unworthiness in light of the gospel. The beauty of a sunset and the vastness of the ocean should serve as a constant reminder of the debt of sin paid out of the merit of Christ’s righteousness on behalf a hopeless and helpless sinners. I pray that the beauty of the gospel would captivate our spiritual eyes and may our hearts sing of the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ as long as our lungs draw breath.
Soli Deo Gloria
Pastor Chris