Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in the world today. Beetles alone comprise 1.5 million species. There are about 370,000 species of flowering plants; 32,000 species of fish; 12,000 species of moss, 10,000 species of birds, 6,500 species of mammals. Creation is The planet is teeming with life – full to the brim of beauty, diversity, color, shape and size. To quote one of my favorite hymns, creation overflows with “all who see the moon’s soft shining, all who breathe beneath the sun.”
The Bible is the story of God’s love for the Creation. It too, is full to overflowing with stories about God’s generosity and the effects God’s generosity has on our lives. There’s the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand; how out in the wilderness, as the day was ending and night is falling, Jesus takes what seems like terribly meager resources – 5 loaves and two fish and turns it into a feast for thousands.
Or how about the father of that wayward prodigal son? He didn’t just welcome him back. Most parents would have done that. No, the father welcomed him back with a huge, and lavish and extravagant party.
And then there’s the good Samaritan who stopped to help the wounded man in the ditch? That alone wasn’t the amazing thing…we would have done that. What was remarkable was the way he stopped. The Samaritan put the wounded man in his car. He took him to the hospital. He told the doctors, "Here's everything - all my credit cards, my checkbook, everything. I'll be back in a week and if it's not enough, I'll give you more." I don't think he even knew the wounded man. Isn't that just a bit overly generous on the part of the Samaritan?
Perhaps my favorite generosity story is Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of John, when he turns water into wine at a Wedding Feast in Cana. Jesus works an unprecedented act - the transformation of many gallons of water into good, rich wine. It is a miracle of abundance, of extravagance, of transformation and new possibilities. The story sets the scene for the rest of Jesus’ ministry - a foretaste of all the good things to come. These stories speak to us something about the nature of God. The extravagant nature of God.
Jesus tells story after story about abundance and extravagance overflowing. He tells these stories because God is like that. God could have made one shade of flower - say, a red rose - and that would be miracle enough for most of us. And yet look at the colors and the shapes of the millions upon millions of flowers in bloom at any time. Wouldn't you call such colorful creativity excessive? There seems to be something built right into the nature of God that tends toward extravagance, effusiveness, and abundance.
Can we recognize the extraordinary abundance of God’s love for us in the midst of the ordinary? Do we allow ourselves the possibility of the miraculous, the mysterious in our busy lives? The impact of these generosity stories is lost if we do not entertain these and similar questions.
A few years ago, I was birding alone, in Mendham NJ at the Schiff Nature Preserve. It was May, the height of migration, and it was a raw and windy day, and the birds were mostly staying low and out of sight. So I tried to coax them out into view using a pishing sound that birds sometimes find interesting. Almost immediately a lovely black and white warbler popped out and into tree just over my head. He was soon joined by a Northern Parula and then a Blackburnian Warbler, then another, and another, and it became a little warbler convention, with no less than 17 tiny, magnificent birds, all different species, all in the height of their breeding plumage, They were talking excitedly amongst themselves, and also with me. It didn’t last long, less than a minute, but the sheer number of them, and their colors, their curiosity, and their spirit…well, they blessed me. It was a miraculous moment, full of significance, full to overflowing with God’s grace and goodness.
The miracle of the transformation of water to wine and other generosity stories in the bible challenge our conventional assumptions about order and control, about what is possible, about where God is found, and how God is known. They challenge us to look for God in the shortages of our lives – for it’s often where we’re lacking that God steps in big ways. They challenge us to look for God in the busyness of our lives and ask us to look for and revel in the superabundance of goodness offered to us.
These stories have caused me to look at nature from a different angle: to see the myriad of species – bugs, plants, animals, fish, fruits, and vegetables - as gracious provisions from the hand of our Maker. I try to make room for the mysterious and not be so quick to dismiss wonder and delight. Be it birds, or wine, or flowers, or smiles, or joy or peace… extravagant, good gifts are a hallmark of God’s love for us.