‘And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.’ — Ephesians 3:18
‘I love you as high as I can reach,’ said Big Nutbrown Hare. That is quite high, thought Little Nutbrown Hare.’ — Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney
Have you ever read the book ‘Guess How Much I Love You’?
When I was little, my Dad would read me this bedtime story about Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare trying to describe how enormously they love each other.
They outdo each other with their descriptions: “I love you as high as I can hop”, “I love you all the way down the lane as far as the river”, “I love you right up to the moon.”
This beautiful story of a parent and child trying to out-love each other is a great example of how hard it is to describe love.
When we love someone deeply, we can feel like we don’t have the words to explain how great and intricate our feelings for them are.
Throughout history, artists, writers and poets have tried to capture the experience of loving someone, whether it’s romantic, platonic or familial love. Even Taylor Swift, who has written countless love songs, acknowledges the challenge of conveying love in its fullness: “I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words”.
One of the greatest songwriters of our generation struggles to put love into words. And if it’s this hard to convey the depth of human love, it’s no wonder that we struggle to understand the infinite expanse of God’s love for us.
God tells us how much He loves us
God tells us how much He loves us in His Word and shows His love for us by providing for us, answering our prayers, growing us in Christ-likeness, guiding us and preparing us to be with Him forever.
Yet we still find it hard to believe or feel His love for us.
We struggle to imagine the God of creation knowing and loving us because it seems so unbelievable. And we can find ourselves worrying that we might lose God’s love because we keep struggling with sin.
But despite our feelings, or misconceptions, God has never stopped loving us. In fact, His love for us never had a beginning, either. “I have loved you with an everlasting love” God declares over His people (Jeremiah 31:3). God’s love for us is endless—it has neither start nor end.
When we struggle to understand God’s love for us, we can read His Word which tells us of His great love for us.
God shows us how much He loves us
Unlike Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare, we don’t have to guess how much God loves us, because He has made it clear in the pages of Scripture:
From before the creation of the world, He loved us and chose us (Ephesians 1:4).
He knit us together in the womb (Psalm 139:13).
He cares for us and provides what we need (Matthew 6:30).
He has shown His great love by dying for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).
Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35).
But God knew we would struggle to grasp the wonder of His love for us—so, as well as His Word, God has given us His Spirit to help us know just how loved we are.
God helps us experience His love
God’s love is so great that we need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us understand it! In Ephesians 3:16–19, Paul asks God to show the church His love:
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
When we’re finding it hard to grasp God’s love for us, we can ask the Holy Spirit to give us the power we need to actually start realising how limitless His love for us is. And we can ask Him to help us experience the love of Christ, because the Spirit is the One who pours the love of God into our hearts (Romans 5) like a constantly flowing waterfall.
The great love debate in ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ ends with Big Nutbrown Hare telling Little Nutbrown Hare, “I love you right up to the moon and back.”
As sweet as this declaration is, it’s nothing compared to the love of our Father who has made us, chosen us, died for us and united us to Himself forever!
And unlike the children’s book, God doesn’t just give us words to understand His love—He shows His love for us in Jesus, and He opens our minds and fills our hearts with His Spirit to know and experience this love in all its fullness.
So, you don’t have to guess how much God loves you. He’s told, shown and filled you with all of it.
With love,
Ruth