Encounters with a Holy God

When my youngest grandson was four years old, he provided me a beautiful example of what God wants. It took place the day he experienced rain for the first time. We had been in a severe drought during his entire lifetime. One day while he was outside playing, a raindrop struck him on the head. When he realized something had hit him he rubbed his head and stared up at the sky with a puzzled look on his face.

            Mystified, he looked to his mother to see if everything was okay. She told him it was a raindrop. He had heard all his life about rain, but up to that moment, he had no concept of what it was. Later that afternoon he went with me to pick up his older sister from school. By this time the rain was coming in a steady downpour. While I waited for her under a cover walkway in front of her school, he ran around trying to catch raindrops.

            It didn’t take long before he discovered a place where one of the rain gutters was overflowing with a steady stream of water. Suddenly, he stepped under the stream, bowed his head, and let the rainwater wash over his hair and shoulders while he held his arms out to his sides. He just stood there letting the water completely drench him from head to toe. This is a picture of how God wants me to experience his love.

            God wants to completely cover me with his love. The extent of his love is farther than the east is from the west. The north and the south terminate at one of the earth’s poles, but the east and west have no termination point. The distance between those two points cannot be measured because the earth is round. If I tried to measure how far the east extends I would find it is infinite. Conversely, if I were to measure how far the west extends, I would find it too is infinite. Both are without end, and so is his love. He wants me to rest and play in his love like a child experiencing rain for the first time. He wants me to stand under his never-ending stream of love and let it pour all over me!