You may know someone who has a painting or photo hanging in their home or office in a frame that’s obviously the wrong size. My grandmother was like that. I remember an aerial picture of my grandparent’s farm that hung in their dining room. The photo fit the frame horizontally but it was a few inches too small for the frame vertically. This resulted in about an inch of space revealing the cardboard backing on both the top and bottom. I never asked grandma why she didn’t frame it properly. Perhaps she chose the frame simply because it was lying around the house or she may have bought whatever frame was on sale at the time. It may have been that she knew it was the wrong size but so wanted to get the photo hung she knowingly framed it incorrectly with the intention of getting a proper frame later. Whatever the reason, it remained in the dining room, all off-kilter in the wrong sized frame, until they went home to be with Jesus.
Experience Love Squared
As the artist of your life, God has created the perfectly sized frame for you as His masterpiece: His love. Anything other than that will simply not be the right fit. You may try to make other things work as your life frame—money, relationships, sex, some sort of substance, fame or popularity, but they will never fit the masterpiece God has made. Why is it that all the self-centered passions we pursue end up looking like the frame my grandma used, with space below and above distracting the viewer from the picture as it was intended to be displayed? Simple: the dimensions are all wrong. We have been measured as His creation to fit perfectly in the frame of His love. Ephesians 3:18 says, “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” His love is the perfect frame for the masterpiece He has created and, like any frame, it has four distinct sides.
1. The Width Of His Love: His love frames every experience you’ve ever had and somehow uses it for your benefit and His will. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28) It’s not that He caused the bad or difficult things in your life; in fact, it’s more likely you allowed things on your Life Palette that needed to be scraped off had no place on the palette.
2. The Length Of His Love: His love leaves no empty spaces and continues the length of your entire life and beyond into eternity. Scripture declares His love endures forever: Psalm 136 alone tells it 26 times. In Jeremiah 31:3, the Lord Himself says He loves His people with an everlasting, unfailing love.
3. The Height Of His Love: The height of His love is perfect for you. In the most celebrated moments of your life, the highest highs, His love is framing you and paving the way for you to have a right relationship with Him, causing your life to reflect Him as a masterpiece.
4. The Depth Of His Love: The depth of His love reaches to your lowest moments, the darkest hours, those times of discouragement and despair when it seems no one cares. Be it abuse, rejection, or when you did things you’re most ashamed of, His love reaches down and frames those moments as a masterpiece. It’s not that the consequences are removed or the pain is avoided; rather, His love covers it in forgiveness and restoration.
So take the time today to pray and ask Him to help you experience the dimensions of His love, squared.