Extravagant Love
In college, whenever the discussion of engagement rings came up and what kind the girls wanted, I’d reply saying that I didn’t want a diamond ring. I’d always found them a bit too expensive and excessive to have. Why spend so much money on something not even useful? I didn’t grow up in a rich family, and so I’ve always had a bit of a hard time with the idea of spending so much money on something I found a little useless and impractical.
Before Vinayak and I got engaged, we went to look at rings just once, out of curiosity. Neither of us had been to ring stores before or looked at rings and we were curious to see the styles and how much they could cost; they could cost a lot. So I told Vinayak I didn’t want a diamond ring, and instead started sending him moissanite rings. I was still looking at different moissanite ring styles the night before he proposed (he had led me to believe he’d propose 6 months later).
The next day, after he proposed, one of the first things I had asked was about the ring – “Is this real?!”, and of course it was. Funnily enough, the weekend before, we were on a trip with some friends and while I was busy convincing one of my friends, who was looking at engagement rings, of the many practicalities and advantages of moissanite rings, Vinayak suddenly chimed in in our group discussion to vehemently insist that our friend buy the real thing for his fiancée. I guess I should’ve taken that as a sign that he’d had already gotten the ring and that it wasn’t going to be a moissanite.
I don’t think I ever wanted a diamond ring because 1. I didn’t think I could have it as I never considered myself to be someone who could afford such a thing and 2. even if I could afford it, I found it too excessive, impractical, and frivolous to ask for or want. But when it comes to buying things for me or his parents, Vinayak has never been one to think too much of whether it is a ‘financially-wise’ choice or whether there is something more practical to spend on. And it’s because when it comes to loving people, like his parents or me, Vinayak loves extravagantly and generously.
This quality of his has always been a reminder as well as a picture to me of how extravagantly and generously God loves us. In the parable of the prodigal son, God’s grace, generosity, and extravagance is shown in how the father throws a huge party to welcome back the prodigal son who had returned home. The prodigal son came back, ready to ask only to be a servant in his father’s household, but the father goes beyond what the son thought would be possible to ask for or to ever have again and not only calls him “son” but throws a party for him. When Jesus was dying on the cross and the thief beside him asked him only to remember him when Jesus entered His kingdom, Jesus answered more generously than what the thief could have hoped for or imagined – Jesus wouldn’t just remember him, but he would be with Jesus in His kingdom that very day. And God’s extravagant love was shown to us on the cross, in that “while we were still sinners”, while we did not yet know the wretched state we were in, while we did not even know what grace or forgiveness to ask for, and “while we were still powerless,” “Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6, 8)
We may not ask for something because we don’t find it possible to obtain, or maybe we don’t ask for something because we find it unnecessary or impractical, but with God, all things are possible and his love set the highest standard of extravagance for us in how he, out of love, went to the cross to die for us who rejected him.
What can we do with so extravagant a love other than to receive it with gratitude and wonder? May we learn to love others just as extravagantly and generously, that through us, others could see and experience this extravagant and generous love of God that has been poured out in full measure on us.
