Can You Measure God's Love?

Measuring the Things We Know

Today, let's think about measuring. We have a measuring cup, a watch, and a tape measure — three everyday tools we use all the time.

If you were making biscuits, which would you need? The measuring cup, of course! You need to put in the right amount of flour, butter, milk, and chocolate chips so that the biscuits won't break up and will actually taste good.

And how will you know when they're cooked and ready to come out of the oven? You need to set a timer or check your watch. Nobody likes burnt biscuits!

What about if you wanted to make a table to put your biscuits on? You'd use the tape measure to make sure the wood is the right size — not too long, not too short. You don't want a table taller than you are, or one that's almost on the ground. It needs to be just the right height.

There are lots of things we can measure, and lots of different ways to measure them. But sometimes there are things that are really hard to measure.

The Most Famous Verse in the Bible

In the Bible, there's a verse that most people have heard of — John 3:16:

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone should not die, but have eternal life.

But what does that mean? Maybe it would be easier to understand if we said it like this:

God loved the world so much that Jesus was sent into the world to show us all how to live the best life — a life that gives everyone enough to live and a chance to help others.

Too Big to Measure

So can we measure how big God's love is with a measuring cup? Or a watch? Or a tape measure?

God's love overflows any cup we have. The tape measure would come to the end long before we reach the end of God's love. And the watch? It would run out of battery long before we get anywhere close.

God's love is so big that we haven't got anything that could measure it — except by using our hearts.

God's love is so wide, so long, so high, and so deep that it can take all our life to try to understand just how big it is. And that's the most wonderful thing of all — a love without limit, given freely to the whole world.