Ocean of Agape

UV 1799/10000 Ocean of Agape
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
Isaiah 49 v 1


No man is an island but we live like isolated isles, seeking our own goals, pursuing our own paths according to our lights and chasing the illusion of knowledge, power, pleasure and wealth. We live today in a world where rocks have replaced the hearts of men and we have become islands indifferent to the ocean of need around us. But, the Lord our Maker knows each of us intimately from our mothers’ wombs. He formed us and knitted us together and shaped the foundations of our personalities and of our lives. While the Greek philosopher from the islands of Greece, Socrates spouted his wisdom that “ knowing oneself is the essence of knowledge,” he did not realize that in order to know oneself, one needed first to know God, the One who birthed our very identity and breathed life into our nostrils, the One who saw us even before our earthly parents set sight upon us, the One who was with us full time during the nine months before we were born. But we cut the spiritual umbilical cord soon after we were born and began to live by sight and virtue of our limited reason and knowledge.
Limited knowledge results in limited success and joy. Unlimited knowledge results in infinite fulfillment and joy. When we know the Lord intimately as He knows us for He knows our thoughts, our emotions, our desires, our goals, our weaknesses, our failures, we would have gained the true and full grasp of knowledge. We will realize that each of us is not an isolated independent isle but that we are both interdependent on each other and dependent on the sovereign Lord for our security, fulfillment and joy. The Word is the map and manual that shows us the details of His plan for mankind as a whole and for each of us. It is Immannuel’s Manual. He sanctifies and edifies or builds us up from our wombs. Our parents may give us names they have chosen along with the names they themselves were given but our true identity is found in the name of the Lord, in the name He gives us. Jesus told Simon that “ You will be called Peter or Rock “ for his eventual steadfast faith in Jesus after the Resurrection became the foundation on which the church is built. Jesus gave the chief persecutor of those times Saul, the name Paul.

If we look at people from the perspective of this Uni-verse, we would see the seven billion plus persons on this earth as interconnected Isles surrounded and connected by the ocean of agape or unconditional love of God. Despite knowing our rebellious, stubborn and unfaithful nature, He loves us. God saw the gap between man and God and between man and man and filled it with agape. We need to fathom and comprehend by the power of the Spirit of God the length, breadth and depth of this ocean of love that surrounds us. The Word is our plumbing device to know the dimensions of agape love. Our strength is constantly renewed by tasting of the waters of agape. Now we perceive God by seeing His reflection in the surface of the ocean and in the face and suffering of Jesus. But one day death shall transport us across the vast ocean in the Ark of Christ that takes not just a representative of our gene pool but everyone named by God to the very presence of the Lord.

Prateep V Philip