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Lavish Love
Brian Mashburn
August 8, 2021
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Lavish Love
Imagine a child in a burning building, helpless.
His parents were in the room of the explosion, there was no chance they would make it. If there was hope for the child upstairs, it resided in the parents. So without them, in addition to being helpless, the child is hopeless.
Now imagine a man bursting into the room coughing, running to the child, sweeping him or her up, and escaping the flames.
A hero, wouldn't you agree? How grateful would that rescued child be?
Now imagine finding out that because of some bizarre circumstance, that man actually lost his own child's life while running into that building. That as it turned out, despite the man not wanting to, he had sacrificed his own child to save the other.
That's more, isn't it? Another level entirely.
Now imagine that man deciding to take care of the child he rescued. Feeding, providing, nurturing, supporting, and caring for that child. Imagine he adopts the child, and signs all his possessions over to that child he rescued, as if he or she was his own.
That's even more, isn't it?
The love of rescue is amazing. The love of sacrifice even more so. The love of adoption, well, lavish, perhaps.
The disciple John thinks so. After reminding his precious "faith children" of everything they have in Christ, and then warning them desperately against threats to all the blessings that the Father has provided them, he pauses and pens this incredible reflection...
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" - 1 John 3:1
Believe it or not, John is not simply thinking of rescue, salvation, and adoption love. He is thinking of all of that, I'm sure, but of something - believe it or not - more.
Let us join John reflecting this morning, and turn his exclamation into a question: "How great IS the love the Father has lavished on us?"