VIVID ENCOUNTERS: Ten Thousand Horses Couldn't
I have seen tall trees and mountains beyond what I can climb. But my mind can’t seem to grasps heights that rise beyond that. I have seen deep canyons and stared into the depths of the ocean, knowing there is so much more beyond what I see, and yet, I cannot imagine depths even beyond that. The kind of heights and depths I can’t comprehend.
There is so much to God that we will never know or understand, but if there is one thing that I want to be able to comprehend – His love.
The Bible tells us it is beyond what we know, it tells us about this love that has no limits or boundaries. I am not looking to define or limit this love, but I want to comprehend and understand that it is indeed just that – beyond me. We tend to gravitate towards what we know, what we can relate to. It’s only natural to us. So we have a tendency to limit God’s love and interaction with us because of what we have experienced ourselves from our family and friends.
The fact that we cannot limit this love may not be something we can fully define, but it needs to be something we gravitate towards. Something we can know and comprehend to some extent so that we know we are welcome, know that we are invited, know that we are inseparable. Know that it has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with him.
I can relate to being out of control, to not being able to orchestrate events or control what others choose to do. People are reckless with their decisions; we all are. I’ve been reckless, and I’ve felt the effects of those equally as reckless.
God is reckless too.
He’s out of our control,
He has done something we could never orchestrate,
Something we can never control.
He has loved us.
He loves us with such certainty in our every moment that I know this is true – not even ten thousand horses could pull us away. No matter how hard I try, I still can’t imagine heights that never stop rising, or depths that never end, but I can imagine ten thousand horses running, trying to pull me away. I can imagine the stampede of even just ten, the noise, the hooves in the dirt, the thunder of their movement. I can imagine how beyond me it would be, how little my strength could hold them there. I can imagine being completely out of control if I tried to run the other way, how easily one step of a horse would pull me right back to where they were. How easily I would be pulled away from any place I try to stand.
If even the stampede of ten thousand horses cannot pull me away or separate me from the love of God, then I know this love is great. That it must be utterly reckless and beyond my control.
Ten. Thousand. Horses.
But God promised us more than ten thousand horses when it comes to his love. He promised us that not height nor depth could separate us. That even angels and principalities could not come between. I can’t always relate to what is perfect, but I can relate to what is reckless. And this is ours, this reckless love.
Not orchestrated or designed by us, nor contained.
Not even ten thousand horses could pull us away from what he has given us.
In a world and society with so much constantly pulling at us, such an anchored love is vividly wild. A love that is not moved or shaken, a love that isn’t trying to escape, but rather a love that vividly anchors us to truth.
Not just on Sunday mornings or when we finally get it right, but every single day.
Whether we have it all together or not, this love is vividly present.
We are wanted just as we are, and that is a truth that not even ten thousand horses could pull away from the depths of our hearts.