Extravagant Love

I was always struck by the story of Mary of Bethany.

She takes her entire life inheritance which is in a bottle of expensive perfume and she pours it at the feet of Jesus. I have to admit though - I often thought, "What a dumb ass." However, Jesus was super into it and said afterward that the story would be known forever throughout the world. I never understood why such ridiculousness should be so rewarded. Especially because I am almost sure people walked around talking about what a ho she was and trying to figure out why old Mary B and Jesus were reeking of the same pure nard. Weird. That's all I could think about that story.

That was before I had ever been in love, and before I knew the definition of extravagant.

extravagance |ik?strav?g?ns|
noun
Without thought of cost

So, less than a month after I got my camera it was stolen, while I was in the room, preparing for our missions conference. I was devastated, but we were preparing for the biggest weekend of our year and I had no time to grieve the loss. The time I had I spent beating myself up for not being more careful and keeping my camera on my person.

I had a sick heart sinking feeling for about three weeks. A few days ago I was packing up my apartment and I called my best friend and said, "What should I do with all this stuff from my camera. This box is just sitting here staring at me and making me sad." He said, throw the box away, keep everything else and don't worry - we'll figure it out.

He's always told me that I should trust him, and trust is something I have a really hard time doing.

So he dropped me off at work on Sunday afternoon, on his way out of town. I walked upstairs to an apartment where we hold our Sunday night small group. I work for a very small, very new church here in Berlin. There were more people there for our pre-meeting than normal, I didn't think much about it. The door bell rang, in walked David (the best friend), who was supposed to be on his way to Leipzig. I was very very very confused. And slightly concerned. Then quickly a dear friend in the church told me how sad everyone was when my camera got stolen, and that they had spent the last three weeks collecting money. They bought me a new one. The exact, overwhelmingly expensive one.

There were so many other things that money could have gone to. More important things. Things that my friends will probably go without now because of their generosity. But out of love, they replaced something I didn't NEED, but that I loved and that brought me joy as an act of extravagant love.

I was embarrassed, humbled, shocked, and deeply thankful. It was one of the most loving things that has ever been done for me, not because of the gift, but because of the deeply thoughtful sacrifice.

Mary of Bethany. I think she was on to something.

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