Extravagant Love

Extravagant love, ever felt it?  Ever given it?  Most parents would say that at the moment of their child’s birth, they felt it and gave it. If it were able to be described it would encompass an overwhelming feeling of wanting to provide the ultimate in love and care to meet the recipients’’ greatest possible needs.  But, what if you are one of many, who aren’t parents?  Does that mean you can’t have experienced extravagant love?  No!  And the same holds true for those who haven’t married!  

Extravagant love is not reserved for a select few; it is and should be available for everyone, without stipulation!  It is ours to choose, yes, you read that right, it is ours to choose!  First and foremost, God showed us His extravagant love by sending His Son to us to die on the cross for our sins.  Someone dying for you is pretty extravagant!  Some of us, (I’m not including myself in this) have chosen careers whereby we put ourselves in positions where our lives are also put on the line.  These include and are not limited to soldiers, police, firefighters, EMTs, missionaries going to 3^rd world countries hostile to Christianity, disaster relief rescuers and if I thought hard enough and long enough it could encompass others.  Should I have left “your” field of endeavor out of the loop, please accept my apologies.  Extravagant means beyond the ordinary, at least to me, and those willing to die for my safety/benefit, are, to me, people of extravagance!

Are you aware though,  that the average “Joe” can also be a giver of extravagant love?  I have a friend who thinks I’m “over the top” with my willingness to give or do and I am not suggesting that I’m all that, instead I am suggesting that because my heart is full, I feel extremely motivated to share.  One could make the argument that then I should share with someone who is “financially needy”, and I would argue back, that while that too is important, the ability to recognize basic needs in someone else is also important.  Fulfilling needs are not always about the monetary value!  A kind word at the right time, an anonymous deed to an unsuspecting person whether known or unknown, they might be the difference in someone’s day and then in how they in turn react to someone else!

There are people all around you that “do” for others and ask nothing in return for themselves.  They too, in my opinion, should benefit from someone recognizing that who they are is important and not important from a status perspective but from a loving one!  One of my all time favorite poems is entitled “Influence” by Joseph Norris.  It goes:

Drop a pebble in the water,
And its ripples reach out far;
And the sunbeams dancing on them
May reflect them to a star.

Give a smile to someone passing,
Thereby making his morning glad;
It may greet you in the evening
When your own heart may be sad.

Do a deed of simple kindness;
Though its end you may not see,
It may reach, like widening ripples,
Down a long eternity. 

I have had the benefit of having some pretty influential people in my life.  Most, I haven’t been able to thank, because at that time I was a self-involved teenager, who later became just self-involved.  Aging does have some positive moments!!  Thank God!!!

The truth of the matter is that we don’t always recognize where or when our persona might have or might be making an impact on someone else.  Knowing this, what kind of impact would you wish to make on someone?  Positive, negative?   Does anyone really want to make a negative impact?!!  One of my dear friends, Linda, sent me an email yesterday as a means of encouragement.  It spoke to this exact topic.

All I can say is that I’ve learned through the years that what I “possess” are gifts given to me.  They are not mine to hold onto, but instead mine to share with others.  Whether or not you are talking about material or spiritual gifts, the mindset holds true.  What you cling to gets crumpled in your fist, but what you gently hold, for whatever time period you hold it, is free to go and free to come back to you with the possibility of more blessings being attached to it.

I’ve had the conversation about legacies with my friend, Nancy.  Wouldn’t we all like to know just what it was that made us special to others?  Why do we wait until people’s eulogies to talk about their meaning to us?  In fact, had Nancy and I not had that conversation, I wonder if she would have heard what I did say at her eulogy!!!  I certainly hope so!

I’d like to get to a place and then get with the people I love and just be able to talk, freely and openly without the embarrassment of feelings creeping in.   It seems that people, myself included this time, are embarrassed by any accolades given to them, well unless they are total narcissists.  In my daydreams, I would say that this conversation would take place at the beach, in the off season, but still be warm enough to be barefooted and wading in the surf.  Whether we walked with coffee or wine in our hands wouldn’t matter.  I envision the water glistening with the diamond effect of the sun dancing on the endless sea.  The conversation, like the ocean would ebb and flow and when it paused, there would be a continued warmth of feeling of still being heard in the silence of contentment.  Maybe this is the stuff of heaven!  I certainly hope so!

Looking up!~ Barb