The story at Easter time is captured in Eph. 2:4-5, “But because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved.”

The root word for “great love“ carries the idea of being high in number or high in amount. In Matt. 4:25 that term refers to “large crowds,” in Matt. 2:18 it is the idea of “great or deep mourning” and in Matt. 7:22, it refers to “many miracles.”  God’s great love is deep, wide, uncontainable, covering us all.

And the root for “rich in mercy” conveys that something is fully resourced, filled, or many in number.  We might sum up both phrases and say that we are the recipients of GOD’S MUCHNESS. We are overflowing with his mercy and grace. And He lavishes so much love on us, we are stuffed full of His amazing affection.

Those descriptors made me think of one of my favorite characters in the OT, a young man named Mephibosheth. In II Samuel 9, David asks if there is anyone still left of the house of Saul that he can bless. And come to find out, one of Jonathan’s sons is still alive. He was crippled as a young boy and lived sequestered away in a town called Lo Debar.

That name, “Lo Debar” literally means “no pasture.” It was a wide spot in the road to nowhere. The unskilled, uneducated folks who had nowhere else to go lived in Lo Debar. And Mephibosheth fit right in. He had no future, no land to call his own, no family to enjoy and no prospects of any of that ever changing.

But David brought him to Jerusalem and insisted that Mephibosheth live with his royal family. “I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul.”

Suddenly that crippled young man belonged somewhere. He ate at the King’s table and slept in the King’s palace. He wore royal robes and owned tribal land. As Mephibosheth shuffled through the rest of his life, every day he was the recipient of David’s MUCHNESS.

You and I might not walk with a halting limp, but we are hobbled by our sin. We deserve to live in place like Lo Debar. But because of God’s great love and rich mercy, we “sit at the King’s table” and He daily loads us with His benefits (Ps. 68:19-21).

Praise the Lord, we are the beneficiaries of God’s MUCHNESS!