The expression “over the top” or OTT for short, is most often used to indicate a person, object or event being something beyond the normal. It is over-and-above, way-beyond-normal, above-and-beyond, beyond reasonable limits, and outlandish.
One may be inclined to ask where this inclination towards OTT expressiveness comes from? Anything from a flamboyant person dressing in an OTT-fashion or purchasing a house or car that would be considered OTT and extraordinary. The simple answer, of course, is God!
From the very first pages in the Bible, we are confronted with God as Creator, who through the very act of creation just goes… well… over the top! Consider birds as an example. Most of us would be satisfied with submitting an art project at school featuring a singular drawing of a bird; at best maybe two or three. God, on the other hand, creates birds from the unlimited, creative repository in His mind, and speaks nearly 18,000 species into being! (According to research led by the American Museum of Natural History in 2016). We can easily go down the list and look at insects, fish, mammals, plants, and the rest of the beauty that constitutes the earth we inhabit. So, God created an environment for humankind that even by the smallest definition is OTT!
Since all people were created by God for a personal relationship characterized by love and grace, this relationship is counted by God as paramount importance. Adam and Eve disobeyed the very basic of principles set in place by God, and as a result severed that Divine relationship. God was not pleased by this and devised a plan so crazy, so outlandish, so extraordinary to our way of thinking that it can only be described as OTT! God sacrificed His only Son to repair the broken relationship between Himself and us! How over the top is that?! Jesus promised us a life of abundance when we decide to live in the atmosphere and environment of a restored relationship. We could easily substitute the word abundance for over-the-top! John records Jesus as saying, “But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect —life in its fullness until you overflow!”
Whatever is a part of the nature, character and kingdom of God will be identifiable as being OTT. It is a simple as that! Will you choose, today, this week, this month, or this year, to live a life that is characterized by God? That is characterized by the expression, OTT?