I am still enjoying all the graduation and award photos being posted by proud parents and grandparents. But let\u2019s be real! Those parents deserve plenty of acclamation! Their photos should be posted for the sacrifices they made in getting their children here: so much time commitment with car rides, early morning lunch prep, nightly homework assistance, and financially supporting their extracurricular activities and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are the ones standing on your tippy toes, capturing your children on your cameras. You are leaning in and shushing anyone around you who is taking away their moment on the stage. Your child\u2019s name is called to receive their diploma or award and your hands are waving wildly and you are screaming out their name with pride and joy. Your eyes are locked on your child and there is nothing that will stand in your way. You are so crazy proud and crazy in love with this child \u2013 you just can\u2019t help yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if we think we have an indescribable love for our kids, it no way compares to how wildly in love God is for us. He is on the front row and if He had a camera, He\u2019d be taking pictures and videos of us, too. I know that is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God is among us. He\u2019s everywhere, but right here close to us. Don\u2019t miss it. He wrote all about His love in His Holy Word and His wild display of affection for us is written there. \u201cHe appeared to me saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you.\u201d (Jeremiah 31:3) He is eager to be near to us when we believe no one else wants to be. (Psalm 34:18) He draws near to us and sticks with us as we go through our day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This kind of love looks crazy. Who would lay down His life to give us love? What did people say of Jesus as he showed crazy love and said He was God? \u201cHe\u2019s crazy, a maniac — out of his head completely. Why bother listening to him?\u201d (John 10:20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus\u2019 crazy love is still after you and me. His love is way beyond you moms and dads who are so crazy in love with your kiddos. He is waving at us, desiring us and moving with us throughout our days of joys and sorrows, comforts and discomforts, acceptance and rejection, wins and defeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our kids may get a little embarrassed with our audacious display of affection and may even look away thinking \u201cMaybe if I don\u2019t look at them, no one will know I\u2019m with them!\u201d But DON\u2019T be embarrassed as God\u2019s kids. Let\u2019s embrace His crazy love and not look the other way. Let\u2019s embrace His pursuit and His affection. Jesus is crazy about us. Just know that. Receive that. Sit in that. Dwell in that. Bathe in that \u2013 and receive His indescribable, unrelenting, reckless, crazy love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, I wasn\u2019t crazy about Corey Asbury\u2019s song: \u201cReckless Love of God\u201d. \u201cReckless\u201d sounded disrespectful, but then I got it. I realized the writers were speaking of God\u2019s love being so extravagant that, from our human perspective, it seems to be reckless. To an outsider\u2014to anyone who doesn\u2019t understand who God is\u2014the way that He loves His children is foolish. Why would He love us? Why would He give up so much to redeem us and restore us to His fellowship? To use the parable used in the song, why would the shepherd leave the ninety-nine to rescue the one? It was because of so great a love as His.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine.
I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it,
Still, You give Yourself away.
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am still enjoying all the graduation and award photos being posted by proud parents and grandparents. But let\u2019s be real! Those parents deserve plenty of acclamation! Their photos should be posted for the sacrifices they made in getting their children here: so much time commitment with car rides, early morning lunch prep, nightly homework…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23684],"tags":[15034,23680,23679,1210,1769,23682,13209,13206,23681,2795,13207,40,5024,23683,11956,493,22762],"class_list":["post-16081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-display-of-affection","tag-acceptance","tag-acclamation","tag-awards","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-corey-asbury","tag-crazy-love","tag-diploma","tag-embrace-gods-love","tag-graduation","tag-indescribable-love","tag-inspiration","tag-love-of-god","tag-never-ending","tag-overwhelming","tag-photos","tag-reckless-love-of-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16083,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16081\/revisions\/16083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}