A God's Lavish

If you are from the South, the old South, the deep, country South, you have heard the expression from your mama or grandma, “a God's lavish”. This saying was usually in regards to a large and vast array of food. Perhaps this food was at a Christmas meal, a buffet line, funeral or a church's dinner on the ground, but wherever it was it was a massive and impressive, both in amount, variety and goodness. There might be fried chicken, ham, squash casserole, butter beans, sliced tomatoes, 16 layer chocolate cakes, fluffy, pillow-white, coconut cake, and scores of desserts too numerous to count. It was like dying and going to heaven to dine with St. Peter himself.

Where did this term come from? Quite likely 1 John 3:1: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are”! The Father loves us, you, me, in such overwhelming and dramatic ways. He doesn't just tolerate us, He wants us, seeks us, and showers us with His lavish and extravagant love. And the best they could do to talk about God's love was to compare it to food fit for a king. Not just the daily fare of dry corn bread and sweet potatoes or peas, but food beyond their imaginations, unlimited, good, and fully satisfying. Their food was just enough to get by on, but when there was a Lavish, they saw it from the hand of God and it couldn't get any better than that.

Perhaps your soul has not been given a God's lavish, by your spouse, friends, co-workers, room mates, children, parents or the world. Perhaps you feel alone, unseen, un-cared for, forgotten, even despised. But the Lord does see you, He longs for you, He desires you, He pursues you and He has great, unimaginable, unfathomable love for you, just waiting for you to turn to His hand and receive it. We see it in the father of the Prodigal Son; God is straining His eyes to see if you are coming to Him. He is on the front porch, waiting, hoping, willing you to come home to Him by just receiving what is already yours. God cares and He loves you. He even hopes for you when you have lost all hope.

Romans 5:5 says And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. He is pouring out His lavish love in our hearts! We no longer have to be ashamed or doubt our loveabilty. We don't have to doubt our worth, particularly when the world or our mind has told us we are worthless or we don't measure up, that we have failed in some way. God calls you His beloved – no conditions, except that you accept Him through His Son's sacrifice of love, love that says “you are so worth it I died a horrible death to save you and I would do it again. Believe me when I say, I see you and I love you and the entire Kingdom of Heaven's love is ready to be poured out onto your heart. Believe me that I AM a good God, a righteous, loving, Heavenly Father. Despite what the people in your life have done, or said, or withheld, I love you with an Everlasting Love without you having to do or be anything; despite your flaws, despite your looks, despite your personality, despite your past, despite your weaknesses, despite your awkwardness, despite your talent. I see all of you, because I made all of you, and I love you. I love you. I love you.

You are beautiful, worthy, precious to me, not matter how many times you've messed up, failed, lost or was never even picked, said the wrong thing at the wrong time, in the wrong way, forgotten or been forgotten. You are still precious to me, and loved abundantly by me. There is nothing wrong with you that my love cannot fix or heal. You are not a mistake; your life is not mistake.

So is the Lord's invitation to us. Do we take in and believe the dry bread crumbs those in our lives give us? Do we cling to the scraps afraid to open our hands to true abundance, either because we don't trust God's goodness for us, today in this situation, or do we believe we really aren't worth it, or that we just can't win?

Lord break down the walls that keep us separate from your grace. Lord break through the armor of pride or hurt or doubt or fear that keeps us from your abundance. Lord, hold us as we've never been held before and pour on us your grace, mercy, goodness, and acceptance, even if we've never felt accepted by you or anyone else before. Take away our shame, bind up our wounds and lavish on us the balm of peace, of sufficiency, of courage and boldness and hope as we were created to be in Christ. Amen.

*a gracious plenty is first cousin to a God's lavish, but technically not the same thing. For instance you could have a gracious plenty of corn on the cob, but no tomatoes. Thus a gracious plenty does not necessarily imply the variety that a God's Lavish does.