Promiscuous Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This time of year when the acorns and pecans cover sidewalks liberally here in North Texas, I start thinking about how nature, with its powerful urge to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Promiscuous Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This time of year when the acorns and pecans cover sidewalks liberally here in North Texas, I start thinking about how nature, with its powerful urge to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Thoughtful Pastor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christy.thomas1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-03T12:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christy Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@christythomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christy Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/\",\"name\":\"Promiscuous Love\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-06-03T12:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-06-03T12:59:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3311c36b468db8f554f8fa332325b6\"},\"description\":\"This time of year when the acorns and pecans cover sidewalks liberally here in North Texas, I start thinking about how nature, with its powerful urge to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Promiscuous Love\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/\",\"name\":\"The Thoughtful Pastor\",\"description\":\"A pastor ponders life, death, hope, despair, theology and the nature of God\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3311c36b468db8f554f8fa332325b6\",\"name\":\"Christy Thomas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac44f40fdd875f2df2ca5f5d7a0411bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac44f40fdd875f2df2ca5f5d7a0411bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christy Thomas\"},\"description\":\"I am an opinionated Jesus-follower, a retired elder in the United Methodist church, a questioner of everything, and a lover of grace. 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{"id":199,"date":"2008-06-03T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-03T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199"},"modified":"2008-06-03T07:59:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-03T12:59:00","slug":"199","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2008\/06\/03\/199\/","title":{"rendered":"Promiscuous Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"acorns-blur\"$ <\/a>This time of year when the acorns and pecans cover sidewalks liberally here in North Texas, I start thinking about how nature, with its powerful urge to reproduce itself, shows us much about the nature of God\u2019s love. There is so much of it that we can trample on it and still have plenty left over to feed wildlife abundantly and see many new trees sprout in the spring. \u00a0The nuts fall without apparently without discernment\u2013they are not parceled out or rationed, but are available to all comers. Promiscuous, actually.<\/p>\n

And, quite a picture of God\u2019s love. The Bible simply abounds with stories about people who really seem unlovable that God just decides to love anyway. Really, it is God\u2019s promiscuous love,\u00a0a love that seems to show no discernment and gets scattered anywhere, to such a point that it almost seems immoral. I mean, some of those people really, really don\u2019t deserve to be loved.<\/p>\n

Well, at least I don\u2019t think they deserve to be loved. Here are a few I can think of quickly off the top of my head.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start with Cain\u2014he killed his brother and then lied about it. But God just spares him and makes sure that no one else can take retribution on him and sends him on his way. Now, how about Abraham? Twice, this fellow, traveling with the beautiful wife, arrives in a foreign country and is afraid that someone is going to kill him because his wife is so beautiful and the inhabitants will want her for themselves. What does he do? He tells people that she\u2019s his sister, lets her be taken into a different household and be subject to the whims of other men, and is left sitting pretty and safe. What a jerk.<\/p>\n

Lot is another great one. This guy is Abe\u2019s nephew, and ends up living in a place that is pretty degraded morally. He has a couple of visitors one night, and the people in the town want to hurt his guests and violate them sexually. Lot offers his unmarried daughters instead to the townsmen so they can violate his daughters instead. He may win the prize for jerkdom. \u00a0But he is spared and rescued from the tragedy to come. Really? This guy?<\/p>\n

Now, to be fair, there are also some women who really have no business receiving God\u2019s love either. There\u2019s this story about a woman who is considered ritually impure and anything she touches is also considered dirty and impure. She rashly pushes her way through a crowd to touch Jesus\u2019 clothes. Stupid woman\u2014who is she to be so selfish as to want to make Jesus dirty? Why didn\u2019t she just fade into the background like she should have? But Jesus insisted on healing her. Made no sense to anyone around him then.<\/p>\n

All this makes me wonder what Jesus would do today with people who have made a total mess of their lives by stupid decisions and immoral behavior and lack of proper respect for the right way to do things. I have this strange sense that God loves them, too. Promiscuous love\u2014that\u2019s what God is about.<\/p>\n

And that, in my opinion, is what Christmas is all about. God is so very, very much in love with us that not barriers will get in the way of showing such love. It\u2019s there for all takers. Come and find it. Come and adore him. Come. God\u2019s love: there for the taking.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"