The Greatest Distance

This is a much quoted line from one of Fish Leong's songs:

有人说

世界上最遥远的距离不是生与死

而是我就站在你面前 你却不知道我爱你

(Loosely translated as: Someone said: The greatest distance in this world is not the one between life and death; but it is when I'm standing in front of you, yet you do not know that I love you.)

I don't know why people fall head over heels over these lines, but I did not find it particularly interesting. Just those romantic soppy stuff that is overdone, says my over-logical brain. However they kept popping up here and there, in random quotes, in Facebook statuses, and of course in Fish Leong's song which is sometimes aired here and there. So it somehow got stuck in my brain.

However, after we studied Romans in last weeks' BS, these lines came back to my head again. And I felt that they were very very true.

Romans 8: 35 ~ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Then verses 37-38: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What dramatic verses, and what weight they carry describing God's love. Quoting Frederick M. Lehman's hymn "The Love of God", my favorite stanza goes:

Could we with ink the oceans fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the oceans dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

A love of such magnitude, and nothing could separate Christ's love for men. Yet men who in nature do not seek after God, and Him, separate themselves from receiving God's love by ignoring the fact that He loves them. Just like the way it is written in those Chinese lyrics. The greatest distance of all. But even this vast chasm never stopped God from reaching out to men because He loved them.

And being kept in God's love and knowing it: is like having every gap in your life filled, because even as the Apostle Paul went through tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, and more; he was still so firmly convinced and unshaken in the knowledge of God's love for him - and all things work for the good for those who love the Lord. Do I have this same focus, and this same assurance in God's love for me, that I may give thanks for all things, be joyful in all things, be patient in all things, and love at all times?