I have always been slightly bothered by the phrase, “I love you to the moon and back.“
I mean, sure. It is sweet and it conjures an image of the floppy eared mom and baby bunny in the children’s popular bedtime story, “Guess How Much I Love You” (which I own, several copies of, including one gigantic life-size version along with the plush and cuddly floppy eared bunny to go with).
The thing that gets me, is that the moon is a measurable distance.
Heck, men have walked on the moon!
While I know it is a phrase not meant to capture a distinct measurement, I happen to be a detail person (also known as, OCD, Type-A, neurotic, you get the point).
So, when someone says they love me a certain distance, I assume their love has limitations. Boo.
Most earthly love does have limitations.
In families of origin, people walk away from blood relations every day. Friendships often go through seasons of growth and seasons of waning.
Even many romantic relationships have an endpoint, contrary to the belief system I inherited from growing up with two sets of grandparents and one set of parents that actually believed in, and stuck to, the vows they made to each other in front of God and their friends and family, prior to their many years of wedded bliss.
The closest earthly love to agape love, which is the immeasurable love Christ has for the world, is that of a parent toward his or her child.
There are simply no limitations.
My sons could literally do anything in the world, and it would not affect my love for them. It is limitless, immeasurable, undefined, and irrefutable.
Even the coldest, hardest, most dangerous criminals, that will never again see the light of freedom from the depths of their cold, hard, dark jail cells, are still very much loved by their mommas.
When I think of a phrase that encompasses the love I feel for my two sons, it is infinite.
I cannot tell you where they end, and I begin. I would sacrifice anything just to know they are safe, protected, and loved.
Sure, they drive me crazy….at times! (I often understand why certain wild animals eat their own young). Yet, for that special love between a mother and child, “to the moon and back,” seems just a drop in the bucket compared to the immeasurable depth God created in a mother’s heart toward those precious blessings that call her, Mom.
It literally blows my mind; the depth and breadth of intensity humans possess toward their children. A love I am convinced has no scientific explanation.
It simply cannot come from anywhere other than a loving Creator who made man in His very own perfect image.
Possessing a minuscule fraction of the love He has shown for us. I simply cannot fathom the vastness of it.
It is like trying to count the stars, or pieces of sand, finding the end of a rainbow, or the last integer in the never-ending numerical alphabet. An end that simply does not exist.
Like trying to wrap my mind around eternity, God’s love is just a wonder I will never fully realize. On this earth, anyway.
Yet, I am grateful. I am blessed to belong to two young boys-daily-growing-into-men who, as closely as I can compare, provide the merest taste of the greatness of love I can never fully comprehend.
It is written in the stars. A love story worthy of endless lifetimes of affection. The bond between a mother and her child.
The very model, yet not near as perfect, as the love our Heavenly Father bestows on each and every one of His earthly children.
“May have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:18-19 (NIV)
The moon is only one small step toward a beautiful journey which has no end, which is why I have to amended the popular phrase; “I love you to the moon and back times infinity….and beyond.”
Just so my bases are covered.
