The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3)
Between that heart in heaven and this poor throbbing heart, aching heart on earth there is love established; love of the dearest, truest, sweetest and most faithful kind.
In fact, the love of woman, the mother’s love, the love of the spouse, these are but the water; but the love of God is the wine.
These are but the things of the earth, but the love of God is the celestial. The mother’s love mirrors the love of God, as the dewdrop mirrors the sun, but as the dewdrop compasses not that mighty orb, so no love that beats in human bosom can ever compass as no words can express the height, length, and breadth of the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. “Yes, I have loved you.”
Oh! come near then, Christian. Your Father, he who chastened you yesterday, loves you; he whom you forget so often, and whom you have offended so constantly, yet loves you. You know what it is to love. Translate the love you bear to your dearest friend, and look at it and say, “God loves me better than this.”
Do you think there are some you could die for cheerfully, whose pain you would freely take if you could ease them of it for a while, upon whose weary bed you would cheerfully lie down if a night of suffering could be spared him; but your Father loves you better than that, and Jesus proves it to you.
He took your sins, your sorrows, your death, your grave, that you might be pardoned, accepted, and received into divine favor, and so might live and be blessed for evermore.
Charles Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005], March 7.