I recently saw a pair of Tweets by @GAfamily with the hashtags #scary and #love. (For those of you who are not into Twitter, using hashtags is a way of identifying key words so that someone searching on that word will find it) It struck me that these are two words that I would not have put together. Scary love.
Today I began reading Genesis for an assignment for our church’s ministry training class. It strikes me that God created us in spite of the fact that He knew that beginning with Adam, we would choose badly and rebel. To me this is the epitome of scary love. It is scary because it is so selfless. It is scary because the love that would create in spite of the certainty of rebellion is a love that is consumed by its object with no expectation of benefit in return.
In our human interactions, we do not give or receive completely selfless love. Consciously or subconsciously when we experience love or the approximation of love, we are wondering what’s in it for the other. This feels normal because it is a universal experience.
Along comes a man named Jesus a little over 2,000 years ago who breaks normality and opens up the possibility of experiencing selfless love in a human interaction. Jesus’ selfless love proved to be a blessing to those who recognized their need for love and a curse to those who didn’t.
So why is this so scary? It is scary in part because we don’t understand selfless love. Another possible reason is because, in our pride, we are unwilling to come to grips with the depth of our unlovliness.
When I reflect upon the selfless love of Jesus, when I read the gospels and see what he did and said, I am confronted with the festering recesses of my heart that are yet to be cleansed and healed. This self revelation is scary and many run from it. Yet, to be confronted by this revelation is the most loving thing that a loving God can do.
May we embrace this Scary Love and be cleansed and motivated by him.