Another word has been sitting in my spirit the last few weeks. Lavish is another one of those words that we have heard but seldom use. It means “expended or produced in abundance; given in large amounts; having a very rich and expensive quality.” As I’ve pondered over that word, I placed it next to my own behaviors. I am loving and generous toward people but I cannot think of a time where I have been lavish. It is a descriptive word that I can only truly attach to One. Jesus. When connecting that word to Jesus the definition actually changes from “expended or produced” to expended and produced. In other words, He creates in excess by His very nature and then He gives Himself away in excess. Love. Grace. Mercy. Forgiveness. Restoration. By His very nature Jesus is the antithesis of everything we learn in the world. The world has taught us that we get what we earn – no more and sometimes less. In Christ, we just sit with our eyes focused on our own poverty of spirit, and here He comes running and leaping (and I think sometimes He must be skipping because He is so happy) with a banquet of love fit for a king or queen and He lavishes it all on us. We are actually dripping in the goodness of God and don’t even grasp it.

My ears immediately perked up on Sunday morning when my Pastor was preaching about the sacrificial blood of Jesus and he read this Scripture: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us” Ephesians 1:7-8NIV. There was that word again. As we went through that service and focused on His sacrifice and shared in Holy Communion, I started to see the description of Jesus as the Lavisher in a deeper and more profound way than ever before. My pastor and I both used the words on Sunday that Jesus’ body was torn down to the bone. The torture device used to lash Jesus 39 times had sharp pieces of stone on the ends meant to dig into the flesh and pull large pieces away – sometimes to the bone. As I thought about what we were saying and as I gazed deeply into the communion cup at that deep colored grape juice, I started to see a picture of Him coming into focus. A picture of Him wounded to the bone. He wasn’t smiling but His eyes were as clear and pure in love with us as ever and He was still lavishing upon us all that we could ever need or want. Beaten and bloody to near death, He never stops pursuing us. He gives no thought to Himself because all His thoughts are on lavishing us. It isn’t only the Jesus we see in paintings where He looks so serene and peaceful in His white robes and glistening hair that gives us extravagant gifts but it is the Jesus covered in sweat and blood with a look of torment on His face that comes bringing more love and more grace and more forgiveness than we could ever comprehend. Only God could do this.

The servant Jesus, the suffering Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, longs to give you a complete identity in Him. While He is lavishing you constantly with gifts of grace, don’t miss the great truth in the midst of being lavished: you are His. The battle has already been won but He still fights for you and pursues you. Let Him tell you who you are. You have a name. You are a child of God.