The cosmic love and wisdom of God should be a truth that collides with our heart (for it is personal to us) and explodes in our soul (for it will stir you to worship).

“…He chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . . In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

God spoke and galaxies stood forth. At his command, and by his very word, oceans and microscopic nanobes, mountain peaks and macadamia nuts, the blue whale and Texas wild flowers all burst onto the scene with the order and deference of a military unit dutifully carrying out a command from the ranking officer, yet, with the delicate movement and artistic gait of the ballet dancer’s pirouette imaging precisely the choreographer's vision. Power and beauty; order and majesty, all taking center stage as a giant mirror reflecting the opulence and grandeur of the glory of God.

But before all that, God knew you. He chose you before the foundation of the world.

And I promise you, our response to that was never to be mere morality or religious observance. When Jesus spoke the galaxies into existence he wasn’t saying, “I hope this compels my people to vote Republican and not drink beer.” The only right response is worship and wonder.

Imagine this:

“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom…we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:6-7).

The secret and hidden wisdom of God is the full-range creative plan of the Gospel of Jesus to save sinners for the glory of God and the joy of the redeemed. Paul puts this creative, wise plan in its eschatological perspective—eternity past (“before the ages”) to eternity future; taking a brilliant, faceted jewel, he takes us back to the minerals that formed it over ages and ages that we might wonder at the creative plan of the Father for his adopted sons.

Imagine this. Before anything existed the Father calls the Son and the Spirit:

“I am going to create Jim, I have these great things planned for his enjoyment that he might marvel at our works and be complete in his joy: I have oceans, and sunsets, and baseball, and brisket, and good music, and daughters, and a beautiful wife all creatively planned for him. But he is going to want to be his own god; he is going to rebel, he is going to self-rely, and self-glorify, and be self-dependent and selfish. And, yet, I love him.

So, Jesus, 2000 years before he is born I want you to die for him; I want you to be a substitutionary, spotless Lamb, that we might save him, and then, Spirit, a little while after he is born I want you to explode in his heart the truth and reality of what we are planning today so his heart soars over the wonders of our work for him, that all affections for anything else are displaced by the weight of our glory and the depth of our love, and then I want you to never leave him, daily reminding him of our great love for him.”

Are you still breathing?

This is the cosmic love and wisdom of God for you. Before galaxies stood forth, he knew you.