THE FOOLISH LOVE OF GOD

First let me begin by making myself perfectly clear. I AM NOT CALLING GOD FOOLISH!

In fact, anyone who would say God is foolish are themselves a Fool! I’m No Fool.

Today we’ll explore “A Foolish Love”. The lover in this case happens to be God.

Many of us might describe God’s Love in various ways.

Some might say… His Love is Tough, others might say… His Love is Tender, still yet others might say… His Love is Redemptive. There are also those who might say… His Love is ALL of these rolled into one.

But I would venture to say that you will be hard pressed to find someone else who would say …His Love is Foolish. Nevertheless, let us begin.

Have you ever been foolishly in love? Do you know anyone who has been?

We as humans don’t recommend loving foolishly.  It is frowned upon in society.

In fact, we are taught to love only when it is beneficial. It must serve US.

When it appears not to, then we rain down our wrath on them. #RETALIATION

When someone does us wrong, we must punish them with all our might.

When someone tries to hurt us, we must hurt them worse.

When someone makes a mistake, we must never let them forget about it.

If someone doesn’t choose to love us, then off with their heads!

NO---FOOLISH---LOVE---ALLOWED---PERIOD

However, I must admit that…I HAVE BEEN FOOLISHLY IN LOVE.

I trusted her, I believed her, I forgave her, I gave to her, I loved her, I thought about her always. That is…until I stopped.

Then in typical fashion, I began hating her and regretting all that I had done.

But God has it much worse than I ever did.  Yes, He HAS it worse.  I’ll show you.

Listen to this example of God’s love that Jesus gave:

A shepherd had a huge flock of 100 sheep, but one of them went astray. That shepherd left his flock of 99 and went after the one that went astray.

He left everything, for one little lamb, that was confused, that doubted him, that didn’t even want to be with him. But he went looking for it any way.

Now, that is some Foolish Love. You see, God got it bad! But wait, there’s more.

Here is another example Jesus gave:

This woman had 10 silver coins in her house, but she lost one somewhere. Being so focused on that one coin, she turned the whole house upside down immediately just to find it. And when she did, she had a huge celebration over that one coin.

What was so important about that one? She still had nine others. The shepherd still had 99 other sheep. Why did he leave them for the one?

Jesus gave us a glimpse into the Foolish Love of God. He asked those listening to him, would any of you have left the 99 and went after the one? Would any of you had an expensive party after finding one lost one?

The answer then and now is a resounding NO. Why? Because that is foolish.

But God doesn’t care! He will do anything and everything for Love.

There isn’t anything God won’t do, when it comes to His children. If they are lost, he will go and find them. If they are confused and hurting, he will spend one-on-one time with them to help settle and heal them.

He will risk everything for any ONE of US.

God’s love serves him no purpose. He has no benefit for loving his children. God doesn’t love us because of pity or that he is made to. He does not have to love us.

Yet he loves endlessly, selflessly. All because he is wired that way. That is just kind of his thing. He loves You and Me Foolishly.

Are we willing to forgive someone who sinned against us? Or to put it another way, are we merciful to someone who we showed love, but they didn’t return it?

When a friend went behind our back---a family member can’t get off alcohol/drugs----a loved one hurt us.    How did we respond?

At times, God's love is so gracious and merciful that appears "foolish" by human standards.

But why would God do something that appears so foolish? Glad you asked.

My Faith Manual puts it this way;  “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

And here is another reference; “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong”.

We can’t comprehend the type of love God has for us. It is illogical. Nothing will stop him from loving us.

How could we ask for more? Yet he wants us to.  He desires to give us everything and then even more.

The French have this saying, L’amour de Dieu est folie! The love of God is folly.

God loves us foolishly, unconditionally, and continually. There is nothing we can do about it.

Except perhaps, love him back the same way.  A FOOLISH LOVE FOR GOD! Dare we be so foolish?

This is a Thompson Truth.