Are we conflicted
over doing something nice for someone who doesn't deserve it? Have we tried to avoid the ungrateful and
contemptible? Are we shying away from
all those who want more of us than we are willing to give? The oddness of Mary pouring her perfume on
the feet of Jesus was not lost on the disciples. It was an extravagant waste and even Jesus
noted the irrationality of it. It is
deeply human to concern oneself with the nickels and pennies and avoid wasteful
expenditures on others. We can talk
ourselves out of the slightest hint of irrational loving if we are careful and
purposeful. What is strange though about
the mind of God is that He often wastes His resources on foolish
extravagance. Take a look at the tiny
paramecium under a microscope and you
become dumbfounded by its elegant structure.
Yet there are billions of those lovely creatures that go unseen and
unnoticed. The bluebells hidden away in
mountain meadows that fade and drop from their stem before a single human
notices them and the sparkle of light refracting into hundreds of little
rainbows as droplets spray out from a cascading stream no one is watching
remind us of the way God thinks. He
wastes His kindness on ungrateful nitwits who don't have the least concern for
what He has done for them. He restores
the health of a drunk who goes out in his new found fitness and gets into a bar
fight. He gives us glowing red and pink
and yellow sunsets that are ignored as we traipse about with our cell phones
glued to our ears and our eyes fixed on the traffic. Wasteful love and extravagant gifts are the
stuff of God and we have excused away our life in Him by refusing to make such
lavish expenditures on anyone but those we like. We might buy a sandwich for a homeless
vagrant who begs us for money and feel like we have really made the loving
gesture but are we willing to do the extravagant thing, the irrational thing
that we could not cogently justify only because it is so much like God to do
such as that? The tree across the way is
full of so many loquats that not even the crows and sparrows can make a dent in
the harvest and the tree is too tall for the people in the neighborhood to pick
its fruit. God is irrational. Mary was irrational. The disciple who preached in the far reaches
of the world only to lose their lives for it were irrational. Zacchaeus was irrational to give half of what
He had to the poor. The one who walks
with God and truly loves Jesus will do irrational things because that is the
nature He possesses. Beware of being
judicious and careful with what you have and the time you possess. It may not be the Spirit of Christ ruling you
there. A crazy giver is far more
beloved in heaven than the reasonable spendthrift.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure,
pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.
For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:38 NIV
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