Week Four - Day Three

His Lavish Love

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is buying and giving gifts to our children. We would carefully wrap the presents and store them in our bedroom, hidden away until the kids were asleep. Every Christmas Eve, after reading the Christmas story and reflecting on God’s amazing love for us in sending Jesus, we would send the kids to bed with the tree still completely empty. But on Christmas morning, they would come downstairs with wide-eyed wonder to find the tree overflowing with gifts. The best word to describe this moment to us would be ‘lavish.’ The stark contrast between the empty tree on Christmas Eve and the abundance of gifts on Christmas morning was, for us, a lavish display of our deep love for our children.

I love that John, in this passage, uses the word ‘lavish’ to describe the Father’s love for us. ‘Lavish’ suggests boundless extravagance, and that’s exactly what the incarnation was—an extravagant and overwhelming display of God’s love. God wrapped Himself in fragile humanity, and in the form of a helpless baby, Jesus came to earth to experience everything we endure—hurt, betrayal, scorn, mockery, hunger, and persecution. Yet through it all, He remained resolutely focused on His mission: to die and save sinners like you and me, reversing the curse of our broken world. Jesus, our Redeemer, our hope, and our peace, is the ultimate gift. This is love—and oh, how extravagant and lavish it truly is.