Monday, April 20, 2015

Ephesians 1:5-6 - "I Love You Back!"

In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He blessed us in the Beloved.

In more text messages than I can count, my son, Will, always gets the last word. I will say, "I love you!" and he will say, "I love you more" or "I love you back." Usually emoticons are involved. I often allow this last word because it always makes my heart so full. My son loves me back. I remember the day I first held him in my arms. Will didn't know me then. He'd heard my voice from the safety of my womb. There was the day when we were swimming in a neighbor's pool and Vanessa, his sister, arose from beneath the surface, grabbed hold of the floater upon which I was lying, stomach bulging with near-term Will, and yelled into my belly button, "Flower!" She was teaching him words. She did that often. I'm sure Will knew her voice, too. But he didn't know we loved him, yet. But, of course, we did. So much so that we made all kinds of plans for his arrival. And on that day, I was flooded with such joy and overwhelmed with such hope. The little one I'd felt rolling around within me was there in my arms, soft and round. My beloved son.

All these years later, Will reciprocates my love. Gives it back to me. Emoticons and all. So do my daughters. In ways that cause me to stand a little taller. All of them tell us how happy they are to be our kids. How thankful they are for all we taught them. We are "the best parents ever." But we know we are terribly flawed. Have made huge mistakes. Wish we'd done some things so differently. The thing, with God's help, we did do was love them all to pieces.

So, here's what I can't imagine: giving Will up for the sake of others. This son of my heart. And if I had done that, I would expect the others to acknowledge the sacrifice with a love and loyalty that reciprocates the act. God gave us His Beloved Son that way. "In love..." Jesus came as God Incarnate in order to demonstrate that love. "God showed His love for us this way: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). God wasn't interested in waiting on us to clean up our acts. We can't, actually. Our God knows our condition. We all fall short of what even those of us who don't know God should reasonably expect of ourselves. We make mistakes. Hurt each other. And all the blood of bulls and goats, all the sacrifices we make in order to right ourselves in an upside down world, aren't enough. Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but, if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12)." The grain seeds itself and makes others like it. From the foundations of the world, God knew He'd do this. Save us Himself. Seed Himself into the soil of our sin. Bury His Beloved in the cave of Pharisee. Raise Himself up out of the anointed darkness to free the Spirit to burrow into our carnality and produce the unexpected, undeserved and unprecedented grace of adoption as children. Born of the Grain Who was willing to plant Himself into the earth of a planet deemed to be the theater of God's grace since before the before.

When I read the phrase "to the praise of His glorious grace" just now, I was struck by what I've heard said before by those who don't believe. "God is such an egomaniac." Makes me cringe. Given what I understand this verse to mean, God is quite the opposite. God gave His Beloved so that, yes, we would praise Him for His glorious grace! Reciprocate the over-the-top sacrifice of life for life! Acknowledge that we understand the plan and what it cost! And be overwhelmed at the grace of a God Who "loved us first" (1 John 4:19). It's why we love Him. Like my beloved son loves me, because I first loved him. I didn't command my children to love me! They love me back! When they moved in my womb, when they cooed in my arms, when I dreamed of their lives, I loved them, and they didn't even know it! That's how God first loved us. Pre-birth, pre-world, before I could possibly understand it. But now? Now I do get it, imperfectly, I'm sure. And I desperately want to reciprocate the love to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He blessed me in the Beloved!