Christmas is coming, and it is hard not to feel excitement building around us. Thanks for taking a few moments here to pause and reflect on “God’s Love Story.”
My father was a thoughtful and quiet man. He did not get wildly excited except when his college team was playing on the ball field. So the following excerpt from one of his letters home is more than a bit out of character.
February 11, 1941…continued. “Anyway, here’s the stupid thing I’m going to do. I don’t have any classes on Friday the 21st, and we have a holiday on Washington’s birthday, so I’m planning to whip up there to Cambridge for that weekend…I can go up on a boat Thursday night…that will give me almost three days to see [Joan], and after that I can tell a little more whether this has all been castles in the air or the real thing…Heaven only knows what we’ll do those three days – but I don’t care much – I mostly want to talk….I’m sort of nonplussed at conservative John dashing off on this somewhat wild venture. Dick [Dad’s seminary roommate] just laughs and laughs and makes stupid faces at me.”
That excerpt reminds me of a brief parable Jesus shared with His disciples. Jesus said the Kingdom of God was like a man who found a treasure in a field. In his excitement, the man did something likely out of character, something crazy. He went home, sold everything he had, and bought the field so that the treasure would be his.
I have always placed myself in the role of the man finding the treasure and selling all he had: Would I ever be so completely sold out to the Lord? But God is not asking us to do anything more than what He Himself has already done. The Father gave up all that He had, even His only Son. In Romans 8:32, Paul writes, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” The Lord gave up everything He had – including His own Son – to purchase us, His treasure.
Is the Lord asking you to do something wild and extravagant to demonstrate your love for Him this season?
