My dear class,
I know it's been forever, school gets busy, but that is no excuse. Although it's a little ways past, I've been wondering how y'all spent your Valentine's Day. This country makes me laugh. The moment Christmas is over stores are full of red and pink trying to market an item that guarantees love. Valentine's Day is a good day to reflect on how we love, how we love ourselves, each other, and most importantly our Lord. I think I have been learning a lot about love recently - no I'm not dating anyone! ;) And there are two things that keep coming up in the context of love: passion, abandonment and forgiveness. It all starts with this promiscuous woman in the New Testament licking Jesus' toes...
Okay, not quite, but pretty close. Look at Luke 7:36-50. Jesus is eating his proper after-church dinner at a pious church-goer's house when suddenly the town harlot enters, throws herself at Jesus' feet. She's sobbing, her tears flowing down her face and dripping onto his legs, she's kissing his dusty feet (if Jesus' feet were anything like my Dad's that has gotta be love! ) Then she wipes her tears off his feet with her hair and pours a $75 bottle of CK all over them. Wow. If some woman of ill-repute burst into your house when you had the pastor over, threw herself at his feet and starting kissing him, what would you think? "What in the world is she doing? She has no right to be here! Has she no self respect?"
No, that woman did not. She did not care what other people thought of her, she did not care that Jesus' feet probably tasted bad or that her gift was embarrassingly extravagant and inappropriate. All this woman knew was that she was horribly sinful and lost, that she was broken. She had tasted the love that this world had to offer and it did not satisfy. And in the eyes, in the touch, in the heart of Jesus she found love. Her crazy actions and utter abandonment were simply her response to the love of Jesus.
When is the last time I have loved Jesus like that? When, if ever, have a forgotten all the things that I should do, that are acceptable to do, and just thrown myself at the feet of Jesus? When was the last time I have realized that I really do not have anything to offer? My pharisee's fare does not impress God, he wants me to realize that I am horribly sinful and unworthy and then just fall at his feet and love him. God does not need me to do things for Him, He desires that I love Him with abandonment.
At this point, you may, like me, ask, "how?" Jesus goes on to explain, our love for Him is because we have been forgiven. How do we discover that passion for our Lord? It comes in stripping away all our "worthiness" and like the woman realizing that we have been forgiven much. We need to stop considering our qualifications and start considering our incapabilities, not to depress ourselves, but to humble ourselves before Jesus. We need to stop comparing ourselves this fallen world for an ego boost and start comparing ourselves to Jesus. The fact is my friend, we all fall hopelessly short of His holiness. And then (and please don't stop there!) we need to let God forgive us. I think that I experience only the shallows of the depths of the forgiveness and love that Jesus has to offer me, and because of this often I am not a very good lover, of Jesus or of others. Because as Jesus points out the one who has been forgiven much loves much. And this love, which stems from Christ's forgiveness, will fill our lives abundantly with a love for our Savior and for others. We will learn to care a lot less about what other people think love looks like, as we simply fall at Jesus' feet in response to his forgiveness. Who knows, you may be kissing somebody's feet sooner than you think!
"Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." Ephesians 5 My friends, may we learn to love extravagantly!
Love and prayers,
Becca Boo :)