Jesus Speaks to Women: Tasting the Greatness of God's Love!

14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. Luke 7: 14-17

I remember hearing someone say a while ago something like: "you can't outgive God."  At the time, I wasn't sure what she meant by that.  She gave me an example of something that had happened to her that involved money.  But the phrase continued to intrigue me until right about now... I can finally see a better picture of the potential of such an exclamation about the nature of our Heavenly Father.  

In what happened to the widow of Nain I see a vivid picture of God's love for us manifested in the person of Jesus the Christ.  His capacity to give of Himself is limitless, and our limited minds struggle to grasp so big a concept. So it is in His actions that we get a glimpse as to what it's meant when the Bible speaks about the immeasurable riches of our God. 

In this passage we see such a glimpse.  I mean, really!  As if Jesus' mere presence, compassion and words weren't enough, He goes on to do something spectacular:  He raises this woman's son from death and gives him back to her...

Praised be His Holy Name!

Can you imagine?  Can you picture yourself there, at that moment?  I imagine myself, not so much as the widow, but as one of the mourners?  That's where I place myself...as a witness, seized by fear, mesmerized, astonished, but at the same time, unable to keep quiet.  I would certainly hope that my taste for chatter would propel me to be one of those spreading this report throughout the area and beyond!  How could anyone keep quiet!? Right?

The thing is...many do keep quiet.  Often, we are in the presence of God's glory and we don't realize it.  We are too distracted to see it.  We are too cynical to recognize it.  We are too self-conscious to publicly acknowledge it.  We are too resentful due to previous hurts to gratefully receive it and gladly communicate it to others in need to hear it.  We have allowed sorrow to swallow us up, so from the depth of our pit of pain we are unable to perceive God's love...

I can see myself being hung up on the fact that the boy did die.  "But he is alive now! Rejoice!"  Yes, but...he did die...why couldn't God keep him from dying and spare me the suffering?  You know?  If He planned to raise him back up again, why go through the hurt?  

Yeah...I can see me standing on this type of toxic attitude...Lord, help me!

I have a hard time moving on.  I don't drop things easily.  Forgiveness doesn't come quickly to my heart.  Fear has a firm grip on my nerves and when something I dread happens...I am so petrified that I can't move beyond the point even when things have resolved.  I keep thinking, "what if it happens again?"  

Sigh...

Well, today, I see, we cannot outgive God.  He is the Supreme Giver of all things, and if He gave once, He will give again, and again, and again.  It's not like He is going to run out of His giving ability.  He not only gives us what we need, but He gives us Himself...even when we don't even have the presence of mind to ask Him for anything...He sees us, He knows what we need, He speaks to us, He provides ultimate comfort and, He restores us...the pain, the suffering, the hardship, the hurt...it is all intended to get us closer to Him and to clear our vision so we can see, taste, feel, breathe, touch, hear and proclaim the magnitude of His love.

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

Ephesians 3: 16-19