When Love Sets the Table, You Don't Get Paper Plates

My husband is an extravagant-love man. When we were first married, he would turn to me (and still does on occasion) whenever we’d find ourselves with nothing to do and ask, “Want me to take you to Paris for lunch?” And the thing is, he meant it.

We weren’t wealthy. In fact, there were some pretty lean times those first few years – the kind of seasons when you go to the grocery store to buy five things that are under a dollar and then try to figure out how to make dinner with them. But if I’d have said, “Yes, please, take me to Paris for lunch,” then he would have worked overtime and sold everything he had to get me there. It might have taken awhile, but he would have made it happen – and he’d have done it with a smile on his face.

So when John writes in the Gospels that God is extravagant in His love and in the handing out of love-gifts, I think I kinda get it.

"The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." (John 3:34-36, The Message)

A lavish distribution of gifts…whoever accepts the Son gets in on everything…forever…!

If that’s not the God I can love and trust, then there isn’t one.

I have a God who doesn’t force, doesn’t threaten, doesn’t arm-twist and doesn’t manipulate. All He had to do was love and He does that perfectly. He doesn’t skimp, doesn’t cheat and isn’t cheap. He's never stingy. He is Love, and when Love sets the table, you don’t get paper plates – you get the wedding china and the crystal and the linens. When Love sets the table, you find some delicacy you never even heard of before, and never even knew to desire.

Love gives more than is needed.
Love always goes overboard, and I love Him for it.

I recently lived out one of the hardest weeks of my life. The temptation was to be afraid – afraid because maybe it could be true, after all, what the snake told Eve about God – that He wasn’t to be trusted.

And I won’t say that lie didn’t sound shiny-new and kind of believable in the face of very frightening news. Except…I live on the other side of the history-marker: the cross of Jesus Christ. I know that there is an extravagant God who spared no cost – not even death – to show me His love. How could I despair in the face of that?

I know – terrible things happen sometimes. Some of them have happened to me, too, and to people I love. I don’t have explanations for that. When the bad news comes, He is there – He and all that outrageous love of His. And when the good news comes, all the better – I have Him to thank!

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians at Ephesus and he wanted them to see that God’s love isn’t fragile. They weren’t going to outlive it, find the end of it or use it up. It’s a strong love. It’s a generous love. Paul wanted them to know what you do with that kind of love.

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, The Message)



Venus and Jupiter are converging

Starry sky seen through Aspen branches

I’m basking in extravagant, overboard, outrageous, too-much, over-the-top, uncontained and ostentatious, unapologetic love, and I’m so grateful that I don’t even know what to say. I’ll take Paul’s challenge. I’ll reach out and experience, test, dive, climb, live…the fullness of God’s love.

Ambushed by the Love-God at a well-set table,
Kimberly

Photos of a starry night courtesy of my extravagant husband - the one who gives me the gift certificate that was meant for him so I can have a new lens for my camera.

Oh, and also courtesy of the extravagant God who made, arranged and named all those stars!