“God doesn’t do social distancing.” (My wife)

“There is tomorrow’s blog post! (Me, to my wife)

When this brief exchange occurred between my wife and me, we were doing the virtual worshiping thing.  Our praise band was singing  the song, “Reckless Love.” Here are the words to this wonderful song:

“Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me

You have been so, so good to me

Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me

You have been so, so kind to me

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, yeah

When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me

You have been so, so good to me

When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me

You have been so, so kind to me

And oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

And 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, yeah

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

And I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah”

(Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Caleb Culver / Cory Asbury / Ran Jackson

Reckless Love lyrics © Bethel Music Publishing, Essential Music Publishing, Watershed Music Group”)

There is, of course, some debate among believers as to whether or not the word “reckless” should ever be used in connection with God.  On the other hand, what word, or words, or phrases have not been the subject of debate among believers.

But all controversy to one side, God’s love is reckless, or at least seems to be so.  The Christian story is this: We all had a fatal disease called sin.  Some people were largely asymptomatic, but we were all carriers.  Some people died excruciating and swift deaths.  Many seemed to have mild cases, and to get “better” relatively quickly.  The word “seemed” in the preceding sentence is the reason for the air quotes around the word “better.”  The truth is that sin was always fatal.  There were no survivors.  The mortality rate was 100%.

God, in what appeared to be a very reckless love, came to earth to live among us, to teach us, but also to die for us.  He did not catch our disease.  No.  He took our disease upon himself—the disease of the whole world.  Every man, woman, and child of all time—past, present, and future.  And he died.  The disease killed him in a few hours, due to the sheer magnitude of the disease that God took upon himself.

And then, a few days later, this Reckless Lover was raised from the dead.  This was not just to vindicate Him.  Oh no!  It was also to show that this deadly disease called sin had been dealt a deadly blow by Reckless-Love-In-The-Flesh, at the cross.

The One who could have certainly practiced social distancing from us contaminated, contagious sinners, instead came very near and took all our contamination and contagion on himself.

Reckless?  Yes!  Loving?  Most definitely!