When I was a young boy, I would sometimes visit my grandparents in rural South Carolina during the summer. They lived in a small house without air-conditioning. I can remember watching baseball games on their black and white television and going fishing with my grandfather. My favorite memory was a combination of two things that I loved: my grandfather and ice cream. My grandfather would go out to the back porch and return to the kitchen with a carton of ice cream. He would tear off the seal, open the lid, and get out two spoons. The two of us would then sit at the kitchen table and eat that ice cream straight from the carton. It was a moment that filled me with both ice cream and awe for my grandfather.
That story is more than a fond childhood memory. It is a reminder of my grandfather’s love for me. It’s also a picture of God’s extravagant love for me and for us, His children. Sometimes we have a hard time grasping the extent of His love. We know it intellectually, but we can’t quite take it all in. Though we know we don’t deserve it, somehow, by His grace, we still receive it.
Paul’s hope for the Ephesians was that they would be able to “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” This same hope is for us as well: that we would be able somehow to comprehend the love of God in our lives and experience Him in ways that fill us with joy.