Scandalous Love

Perhaps this has happened to you. You choose a gift for someone. You wrap it, present it to them, and step back and wait for their reaction. You have to wait, because you can never be sure exactly what kind of reaction you will get.

If they are busy or distracted, they may look up from their work for a moment, accept the package, and toss it to the side without missing a beat. Then again, they may be a little more gracious. They may take a moment to thank you; but—and you’re not sure why—it’s seems they have been expecting you to show up and they are more than a little disappointed that it has taken you so long.

Then there are those folks who seem sincerely surprised and honored that you have thought enough to remember them with a gift. You might hear them say, “You shouldn’t have”—and it’s not because they now feel obligated to reciprocate. It’s these occasions that remind us of what Christmas is truly about.

Christmas is the occasion when God gave the gift of his Son to you. Jesus came to live among us, as one of us. The Incarnation is the revelation of God’s scandalous love affair with humanity.

We often fail to understand just how scandalous God’s love for us is, and how radical it is that God would show that love by lowering himself to be born in human form.

The Christmas story exemplifies how God’s ways are not our ways. God works miracles in unexpected places, in unexpected ways.  God loves us with a scandalous love.

To experience a different kind of Christmas means to not only appreciate and accept God’s scandalous love, but also to respond to the challenge to love others in that same way. What are society’s expectations of who you’re supposed to love, and who you’re not supposed to love? What kind of scandal would it create if you were to go out of the way to demonstrate love toward someone who’s not supposed to be loved? How would that be different from the safe, cautious ways we often show Christ’s love in the world?

To whom or in what way can you show “scandalous” love this holiday season because of the great love God has shown you? This is truly what Christmas is about.