Extravagance

A couple of months ago, on a Sunday afternoon, my husband said this: "Would it be a blessing to you if on my day off, I planned the menu, made the meal and you could have a break?"

I envisioned trying to take a break in our house while he was in the kitchen making dinner and watching all three children. The three children that would surely end up wherever I was taking my break. And the husband who may get exasperated in the kitchen. What I was envisioning wasn't much of a break.

Then he continued, "You'd have to leave the house. And you can't run errands. You could go to the fabric store, get some coffee and read a book, go shopping... "

Yes. He actually said those things. An offer like this is not a regular occurence at my house. I was nearly speechless.

"Well, YEAH. That would absolutely be a blessing. I would love that!"

And so I had two days to look forward to this break. (Which is part of the gift, in my opinion. The having-time-to-anticipate it.)

On Tuesday afternoon, Mark asked, "What time would you like to eat dinner?"

I said, "5:30". He said "It will be ready."

I left the house at around 3:45, heading for the fabric store.

At 5:20 I was home, and found Mark in the kitchen, dinner nearly ready, the table nearly set, and the children happily playing. We ate a delicious meal. As we ate, I tried to express my gratitude for such a gift (such a gift, by the way, that he is offering not once a year or once a month, even. But once a week!?!?!). I was searching for a word to describe how great it was but couldn't find it. So I said things like, "I feel like a queen..., this is just so huge..., such a luxury..." Mark smiled and was clearly delighted to have blessed me so much.

Later, he was cleaning up the kitchen (having instructed me not to even think of cleaning up; he would do it!!!), and again I tried to find the word. This time, I thought of it. Extravagant. I felt overwhelmed; this gift seemed so extravagant to a practical girl like me.

It was at that moment that I remembered something.

About a week prior to that I'd been reading about God's love for us. How full; how lavish His love is.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17-19)

One of the questions in my Bible study was this:

If you can't think of an occasion when you felt lavished in the love of God, ask Him to make you more aware. God's love is demonstrative. Ask Him to widen your spiritual vision so that you can behold unexpected evidences of God's amazing love.

So I did that. I asked God to make me more aware of the magnitude of His love for me.

I'd forgotten I had asked Him. Until that moment.

Sitting at the kitchen table, expressing to Mark how grateful I was for the extravagance of his love for me, I remembered. It was then that I recognized that this was God's love for me, expressed through my husband. That extravagant, overwhelming-to-me, lavish gift was God's gift to a tired mama of three little ones. To me, Stacy. His child whom He loves so deeply.

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Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ~Matthew 7:7-11