by Pastor Mike Middaugh

There are many things about God and His plans that I do not understand. For example, what does He look like? Or, won’t heaven get boring if we are there forever? And, why do we have an appendix?

But one thing I do know for sure: God’s ways are higher than my ways. Which means: if He tells us He loves us it must be true, but it might not make any sense.

And truly, it doesn’t. Why would God continue to love a people who clearly have trouble loving Him? Why, of all the people and all the nations who have ever lived, did he choose to give this promise first to the Israelites, saying, “you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you…” (Deut. 7:6). And then there are the related questions such as, if God truly loves us why does he let evil work itself out in the world?

But in spite of our questions and inability to make sense of it all, this is the truth God reveals in the Bible – He has an unrelenting love for His people. “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…. because of love He predestined us for adoption as His people through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5). He loves us before we were created. Like a prince looking out on a kingdom of traitors and choosing as his beloved one who despised him.

And then, this love becomes a saving love. He rescues us “because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave [us] in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9). Before creation he loved us like this.

Paul calls this a “great love.” And what marks it as great, he says, is that because of it, God came to us even in our rebellious, terrible, sinful nature and made us alive. “Because of the great love with which He loved us, God made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Great love made us alive.

They are weak, But He is Strong

There is another thing I know for sure about God: there will be a day when I will meet him. We joke about the questions we will ask God when we get to heaven, but the reality is, we may not even have to ask. Revelation paints a picture of God’s people, those made righteous by the blood of Christ, standing and reigning alongside Him. On that day we will see as He sees and understand as He understands. His love will have made us whole.

For no longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His people will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever (Revelation 22:3-5).

His ways must be higher than my ways, for He has made me to believe in His love, and yet I do not understand it.