| The Gathering
Have you ever gone to a potluck, a social gathering,
like by a church group or maybe a family reunion? You were told
something like, "You bring what you want to eat and we'll furnish
the tea."
You get ready to pack your lunch, but all you
could find was one dried up piece of bologna and just enough mustard
in the jar so that you got it all over your knuckles when you tried
to get it out . . . and just two stale pieces of bread. Soooooooo,
you made a bologna sandwich and wrapped it in a brown bag and went
to the picnic.
When it came time to eat, you sat at the end
of the table and spread out your sandwich. But the folks right next
to you - the lady was a good cook and had worked all day - had fried
chicken and baked beans and potato salad and home made rolls and
sliced tomatoes and pickles and olives and celery, and, to top it
off, two great big homemade chocolate pies. They spread it all out
beside you and there you were . . . with your bologna sandwich.
But they smiled warmly and said to you "Why
don't we put it all together?" You may have stammered a bit,
embarrassed, and made excuses, but they wouldn't take no for an
answer. "Aww come on, there's plenty of chicken, plenty of
pie, plenty of everything. And we just love bologna sandwiches.
Let's just put it all together." So you did . . . and there
you sat, eating like a king, when you came like a pauper.
So I'm thinking . . . thinking of me sharing
in the very being of God. When I think of how little I bring and
how much He brings and that He invites me to share. . . I know I
should be shouting to the housetops, but I'm so filled with awe
and wonder that I can hardly be heard. I know I don't have enough
love. . . or faith . . . or grace. . . or mercy. . . or wisdom.
But He has. He has ALL those things in abundance, and He says, "Let's
just put it all together. Everything that I possess is available
to you, and everything that I am and can be to a person I will be
to you."
And when I think about it like that, it really
amuses me - to see somebody running around through life, hanging
on to their dumb bag, with their stale bologna sandwich saying,
"Well, God's not gonna get my sandwich! No sirree, not mine!"
Did you ever see anybody like that - just so needy? Just about half
starved to death, hanging on for dear life to their bologna sandwich?
You see, it's not that He needs your bologna
sandwich. Fact is, you need His everything.
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