The Deepest Map Ever Made

In 2012, oceanographer Victor Vescovo set out to do what no human had done — visit the deepest point in all five of the world's oceans. When his submersible finally touched the floor of the Mariana Trench, 36,000 feet below the Pacific surface, he sat in silence. The sonar kept pinging. The seafloor stretched in every direction, unmapped and seemingly endless. Vescovo later told reporters he felt simultaneously humbled and strangely at home, as if the ocean had been waiting for him.

He had spent his fortune building the vessel. He had trained for years. And yet when he arrived at the deepest place on earth, he discovered it was deeper still — the trench extended into crevices his instruments could not measure.

Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that we would "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." Notice he does not pray that we would finally reach the bottom. He knows we never will. The love of Christ, Paul says, "surpasses knowledge." It is unsearchable riches — treasure without a floor.

But here is the miracle: the same Christ whose love exceeds all measurement gives us "boldness and confident access" through faith. We are not spectators peering over the railing. We are invited into the submersible. The God whose love has no bottom says, Come down. There is always more.