Extravagant

Last night in church, we sang the song "Your Love is Extravagant."

Which got me thinking of that word, extravagant. And I can't really think of a better descriptor of God's love.

Today we live in a very finite, scientific world. When we read in the Bible of offspring as numerous as the sands of the shore or the stars of the sky, here in 2011 we can almost get our minds around that. Not really-- I mean, I couldn't even begin to give you an estimate. But I could get a lot further than someone a few thousand years ago. We tend to view them as simple, limited in worldview, more impressed by such an analogy. Somewhere, somebody could run some sort of algorithm (I don't actually know what an algorithm is, but it sounds good, no?) to actually determine how many people came from Abraham.

In the same way, we tend to think of God's love as a finite parcel, something measurable, and his sacrifice for us as a literal purchase-- he checked the price tag on our lives, and counted out the exact change. I think we tend to think of the purchase at some sort of one-for-one exchange rate. Not that we and Jesus are an equal trade; but more than as bad as we are, that's how good he is. 

When in fact, for as sinful as we are, he is so far on the other side of the spectrum that he himself is the measure. Our love for God, who is so deserving of it, is not even on the same scale as his love for us, the undeserving. While I, let alone the entirety of humanity, am a costly purchase, he overpaid so absurdly much that we cannot believe it, so we have difficulty grasping the awesomeness of it.

Consider these various alternate definitions, found online:

extravagant (adj.):

exceeding the limits of reason or necessity.  

lacking in moderation, balance, and restraint.

given to lavish or imprudent expenditure.

extremely or unreasonably high in price.

extremely abundant; profuse.

exceeding the bounds of reason, as actions, demands, opinions, or passions.

going beyond what is deserved or justifiable.

exceeding due bounds; wild; excessive; unrestrained.

Extravagance is seen as almost inappropriate in its over-the-top-ness. Several meanings mentioned wastefulness. 

A love so beyond reason, so unrestrained, a gift so lavish and undeserved, a relationship so lacking in balance is framed as imprudent, dangerous, verging on insanity.

Which is why it is so amazing. It is not reasonable, deserved, or justifiable, and not even necessary-- for God so loved the world that he didn't just redeem it, he paid so far above the sticker price so that we would know how deep and wide and boundless his love really is. Or at least begin to understand a tiny glimpse of that notion, for now.

(If you'd like to know the rest of the song lyrics but don't want to listen via the video below, you can also just see the lyrics here.)