The Reckless Love of God

​A lot of thoughts flood my mind when I think of God's love being "reckless." Above all, I am thankful that His love is relentless in pursuit of me. And it is reckless in the way that the cost of my life was Jesus' death. Jesus knew the cost of loving me and still chose to do so. Through all of His pursuit of me, He has never made a wrong move. He has never and will never regret running after me. His love is reckless, in that despite the consequence of my sin that He had to pay, He still chose to love sacrificially. We did nothing to earn or deserve this love, but He still fights until we are found by Him.  ​

The chorus of the song is based on Jesus' teaching that we find in Matthew 18 and Luke 15:

See to it that you don’t despise one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save the lost.  What do you think? If someone has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go and search for the stray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over that sheep more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish. (emphasis added)

Matthew 18:10-14

​Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (emphasis added)

Luke 15:1-7

I am so thankful for songs that pull truth straight from specific scriptures. I appreciate the opportunity we have to sing God's words over us and back to Him. We rejoice and thank God for His love that does not count us out, but rather leaves the ninety-nine to chase down the one. What incredible love, that God thinks so much of us and loves us so much that it is not His will for not even one of us to perish (2 Peter 3:9). 

And what an example of love for us to follow! May we as followers of Christ learn from Jesus' display of love and care about the one just as much as we do about the ninety-nine. May we go to love and tell everyone about this reckless love. May we care about the outcast and the far and forgotten, knowing that Jesus showed His love to us while we were still strangers, while we were far from Him.