Van

So on Friday I went to pick up the treadmill. I had to rent a van. I did measure the car just see if I could fit it in to save me hiring a van. But no. So I hired a van. But, I thought, I don’t need a big van. I only need one bog enough to fit treadmill in. So I looked on the various websites and found a van that was really a car with a big boot space. Lovely I thought. All sorted. That was until I went to pick up said van. I looked at it and my heart sank. It looked smaller than my car. How could that be? My mind went into overdrive: what if I can’t get the treadmill in? What if it’s not big enough? Do I want to risk going all the way the Chorleywood only to find it doesn’t fit? When would I be able to go again it being so close to Christmas? I drove home to pick Lisa up and decided to measure the van. By my calculation it might just fit. Worst of all worlds: I either want it to fit, or not to fit. What I don’t want is to know that it might just fit! I had visions of getting al the way there and realising it wouldn’t fit. It would be disappointing. Irritating. And I would look stupid! So I drove back the rental place and asked if they could give me a bigger van. It wasn’t my finest moment! But, to my surprise the guy said “Yes, we can do that!” What relief. I’m saved. I won’t look stupid. I can hire a bigger van and all will be well. It was indeed well. But the only van they had left to rent was a Luton van, which, if you know anything about vans, is a big van. A really big van. You could use it to move house! So now I have the choice between a van that might not be big enough and a van that is ridiculously big for the task. I paused, thinking, “Why didn’t I just go for a Transit van in the first place?” Let’s not go there! I went for the huge van that I absolutely knew would be big enough. I might look silly arriving with such a big van, but at least I knew it wouldn’t be a wasted trip. It turned out that we also brought back a lovely wooden bench to sell for the charity shop which we wouldn’t have been able to fit in the smaller van! We could have put loads of stuff in the van. We could have moved house. It was huge. As I driving back on the motorway it got me thinking about God’s love: it’s absolutely huge! And maybe sometimes we think that whatever it is we are struggling with is too big for God. Perhaps over this last year we’ve thought that we have been outside God’s love. Maybe we’ve struggled in ways that have surprised us and seem so huge to us, that we have been tempted to think God doesn’t, or won’t love us anymore. Or maybe that’s just me. Because I’ve had moments like that. And I still do. But driving back on the motorway, in a van that was ridiculously big for the task of bringing a treadmill home, I couldn’t help thinking the same about God’s love. It’s ridiculously big. It’s got so much room in it that it can carry everything I’ve got and everything I will ever have have. It’s so big I will never be able to fill it. Or perhaps more accurately, I will never find the end of it. No-one ever has. No-one ever will. Isn’t that what the Christmas story tells us: God love us so much, Jesus came to be born in a stable. God became man. God became one of us. He came to show us just how big his love for us really is. I have to hire another van next week. I’ll never think of vans the same again. But then maybe that’s not such a bad thing, because perhaps it means I’ll never think of the Christmas story the same way again: Perhaps it will help me to remember the deep and powerful truth that God’s love is big enough for me. Perhaps you should hire a van too!