Above All

Above all powers above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began.
-Michael W Smith

I really appreciate those lyrics. God above all. They go on to expound on Christ's great sacrificial love for us. I'll make it more specific and consider it His sacrificial love for me. The naked, public sacrifice Jesus became in front of an entire city bursting with pilgrims and soldiers was also specific and personal.

He did it for Kathleen Lynn Cecilia Cavanaugh LaMantia. It was a personal and ancient love for me that brought Him to the place of atonement. I have to know He made me His mission. He was the Savior of the world but it only counts if I knew He was saving me; if I was His world in those deadly hours. If it was my hands and feet He spared.

The One who saw the Cross coming before there was even light to see by, saw me. Ancient and purposeful affection from the One above all powers, nature, wisdom and kings who heard, "Crucify him!" before there was language. The Father had been holding His gift a long time.


Fast forward to the present. You are looking at my anniversary gift. A trilobite fossil. I picked it up from is resting place among shark teeth, fossilized worms and ammonites. I turned it over in my palm, smelled it, ran a finger along the groves. History and then some. Its Creator is my Savior.

John bought that wonderful old critter for me. Jesus made it for my enjoyment and for God's own glory. All God had created was placed in the hands of our made-in-His-image ancestors. The earth's bones always remind me of that trust. They remind me how long I have been loved by One with no equal. The One who saw me captivated by a piece of old exoskeleton, turning it over, looking for the fingerprints of the Mighty One who made all things ex nihilo.*

Who has scooped up the ocean in his two hands, or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger, Who has put all the earth's dirt in one of his baskets, weighed each mountain and hill? Who could ever have told God what to do or taught him his business? What expert would he have gone to for advice, what school would he attend to learn justice? What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows, showed him how things work? Isaiah 40:12-15

He has planted Eternity in our hearts this amazing, one of a kind God. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 ) I hear it echo back to me from every corner of Creation. Shells whisper it. Ancient sea creatures point to it. Stars illuminate its path. But it is Calvary that marks the spot where we can be pierced by it. Where we enter in.

He has scooped up an ocean of love in His two hands and laid it in our hands. Whatever He made, He loved us more. More than the mountains He weighed or the baskets full of earth. More than sky or planets. One of a kind love from an 'above all' God.

This is a season for considering, for doing some weighing of our own. Walk up the hill where grace called down forgiveness upon us. Count His ribs. Count the cost. Consider the value Jesus placed upon Eternity with us...me and you.

It is a short walk to a far away place above all.

-Kat


* Latin for out of nothing.