“He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him” (Psalm 103:10-11).

When I was younger, I would often run up to my mom, spread my arms wide, and say, “I love you thi-i-i-i-i-s much.” I had short arms, so my hands were not very far apart. But my mom understood what I was saying: I had a big love for her. (For the record, I still have a big love for my mom.)

Showing his love

In Psalm 103, God does something similar. He shows how big his love for us is. God’s love for us is so big that he “does not treat us as our sins deserve.” What a beautiful statement! But implicit in that statement is the fact that we are sinners. Our sins deserve eternal punishment. Our iniquities should be repaid with eternal separation from God.

But God’s love for us is so big that he does not give us what our sins deserve. Instead, he gives us a Savior. A Savior who removed our sins and paid for our iniquities. A Savior who gave us perfection instead of punishment, grace instead of guilt, peace instead of pain.

Because of this Savior, God does not repay us according to our iniquities. Instead, he repaid Jesus according to our iniquities and repays us according to Jesus’ perfection. Why would God do this? Because his love for us is that big.

Measuring his love

Psalm 103 tries to show us just how big God’s love is: “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.” How big is God’s love for us? It’s as high as the heavens are above the earth. Look up at the clouds—that’s pretty high! But the heavens aren’t just the clouds and sky above us. The heavens are way bigger than that.

Back in 2006, NASA launched a satellite called New Horizons, whose mission is to explore the dwarf planet Pluto at the edge of our solar system and what lies beyond it. A few years ago, New Horizons sent back some stunning pictures of Pluto and what lies beyond it. You know what’s in those pictures? More stars. More solar systems. More galaxies that stretch for billions and billions of miles. The heavens stretch so far above the earth that we haven’t even found where they end.

How big is God’s love for us? It’s as high as the heavens are above the earth.

And we never will. New Horizons has traveled more than six billion miles. It’s moving away from the earth at over 34,000 miles per hour. But even at that distance and that speed, the New Horizons satellite can’t find where the heavens end because the heavens are expanding.

Scientists say that the universe is expanding faster than we can travel. That means we will never be able to find the end of the universe. We will never know just how high above the earth the heavens are. And that’s how big God’s love for us is. It isn’t just massive beyond understanding; it is always growing bigger.

So how big is God’s love? It’s so big that the only time it was accurately measured was when Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross and said, “I love you this much.”

Now that is a big love.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for your big love. Help us appreciate it every day. Amen.

Author: Evan Chartrand
Volume 113, Number 09
Issue: September 2026
Photo: iStock