Have you ever paused to think how lavishly, extravagantly, excessively generous God is? You probably haven’t; but allow me to put this into perspective.
Have you ever noticed how easily we get dazzled by the night lights? I mean the man-made lights. The city lights dazzle us with their shimmer and people actually go out to see them.
Indeed, anything with lights on it at night appears exquisitely bright.
But any man-made light costs money. Man therefore pays heavily to enjoy any light or warmth at night. The world pays a lot for their nights. That is why they tell you to turn off the lights when you leave a room.
But, come day-break, and the world has more light and warmth than it needs! All the lighting companies in the world combined could not produce the light and heat that the sun gives. But the sun is not of any man; it is of God. The light and warmth that the sun provides come from God and it gives life to everything in the world.
There are two strange aspects about God and His sun. One is that God does not give His light in “candlefuls” or “torchfuls”. He is not stingy. On the contrary, God gives us light and warmth without measure.
During the daytime, I can see as far as my eyesight will allow. If I could see all the way to New York I would.
I am surprised that we can be wowed by the world’s night lights and yet all their brilliance combined is no match for the sun.
The other interesting thing is that God does not charge a dime for the sun. It is free. I have never seen a monthly bill for the sun I enjoy daily. And yet the sun is involved in probably 99% of my physical life! That’s incredible! All of it absolutely free.
The fact that God’s strange benovelence is showered on everyone provides us with another aspect of God’s nature: that God’s love is all-encomapssing. God does not shine the sun on a choice clique of “friends” or His obedient children only. He shines His light and gives warmth to everyone – the good as well as the bad.
There is no doubt as to what I would do if God gave me the controls to the sun. I probably would shine it on everyone the first day – no, make that the first minute, because by the second minute I would be so infuriated at all the evil people are doing in the world that I would turn off the sun in all the wicked people’s homes immediately.
If we go out to be dazzled by the night lights, I wonder how much more appreciative we should be of God’s sun? I am surprised that the world does not wake up every morning and ululate with wonder and joy at this unutterable gift.
Now, let us come to water. Water is life, they say. Have you ever been awed with how, with the coming of the rainy season, God just pours hundreds of millions of gallons of water over the earth? God is so liberal! He pours so much rain until we say, “Enough, Lord!”
He does not pour His water in cupfuls or panfuls. He has so much of it and He is extremely liberal with it. He wants us to see His glory.
(We are so graceless we do not even have the grace to say, “Thank you, Lord.” Instead, the minute we get home wet, or our car breaks down in the rain, we begin to complain about how “these rains have become too much!” And God is so merciful: instead of blasting us with a bolt of lightning, He simply forgives us and shines the sun on us the next day.)
And just imagine how much oxygen there is in the air. There is so much oxygen that God does not need a mechanism to recycle the air (which we would, if He left us to our devices).
Have you ever wondered about someone who murders another person. That person actually uses a lot of oxygen to commit his crime, and the oxygen he uses is freely provided to him by God.
Imagine what you would do if you controlled the oxygen supply in the world and you found someone doing a thing like that. I am sure you would cut off his oxygen supply immediately.
But God does not do that. He gives the man all the oxygen he needs even as he wantonly kills off his fellow man. God then waits on the killer to repent. If he repents, God forgets that he ever killed another man!
God is rich on so many fronts, and His liberality equals His richness.
Actually, none of us deserves the things that God freely gives to us – and which we take too much for granted. But God is so magnanimous He continuously gives us them – over and over, even when we are not walking in His perfect will – and without measure. And these things are just the tip of the iceberg. There are no words sufficient to tell of God’s mercy and provision for us.
Oh, depth of the riches of the grace of God! How good and gracious and compassionate and forgiving and merciful and tender-hearted is our God! Were everyone in the world a scribe, still they would not suffice to tell of the goodness and kindness of God. His richness is indescribable. And His praises are beyond words.
[Below: God gives us so many things to enjoy – and He gives us liberally!]
Cross of Christ 