“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
It is Good Friday in our home. After we pass the communion cup, we bow our heads to pray, and I quickly reach for my phone to snap a picture.
One of the big girls looks at me with the question in her eyes, “why would you take a picture of this?” And it’s true – this one isn’t going to make it on social media. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have even taken it. The table is A MESS. We have eaten supper on paper plates to give everyone a break from dishes, which have become more and more time consuming as we spend every minute with all of us at home. There is an almost empty, tipped-over bottle of salad dressing in the middle of the table, a pile of watermelon rinds off to the side, and a stick from the yard that one stubborn three-year-old insisted on bringing to dinner.
Communion is a plate full of crackers and a coffee mug of wine that we pass between ourselves, and as I bow my head once again, I see that I am stepping in the baby’s pile of Cheerios.
The scene is not picture-worthy. But this moment, it is the abundance He has given me. My natural tendency would be to translate this messy, less-than-perfect scene into believing that this moment is not Jesus-worthy, that there is something wrong with beginning family worship without first cleaning up a bit, or with remembering his sacrifice over disposable dishes.
In my early years as a Christian I believed that His abundance of blessings might only show up in radical decisions, life-altering miracles, public accolades. Then He would be glorified.
And yet, Jesus comes quiet, into my cheerio piles and my loud dinner table, into my mess. And He gently opens my eyes to see that He has given us abundance here. Here in the gift of His body broken, His blood poured out. Here in the table of faces I adore, full once more of food that will sustain us. None of it may be flashy or magnificent by the world’s standards, but these gifts, they are exceedingly abundantly more than I deserve. And I see His glory in the young hearts learning to worship Him and to love each other and in the paper plates and the filthy floor.
Abundance is always what we receive from Him. The real question is, do we have eyes to see it?
Time and time again I have known it: this is where He meets us. Here in the spilled cheerios and the dinner thrown together of left-overs. Here in the mess of ordinary, every day life. The breath in our lungs? Abundance. The gift of His Son? Exceedingly more than we could deserve. His glory? Every time we choose to take what He gives and be thankful.
And I want to remember us like this – coming together around this big table to worship in the middle of the chaos and disorder. I want to remember us here, bowing our heads and breaking the bread and passing the cup of His sure and certain promises regardless of our outward appearance or our state of disarray.
He doesn’t need us to be ready for Him; He is coming for us. He is coming for us right in the middle of our ordinary, right in the middle of our mundane, right in the middle of our mess. We don’t need to clean up the house for Him; He is giving us an abundance of blessings right where we are. We lift our voices together in worship and I want to remember us right here in the waiting. In the time of some of the greatest uncertainty that much of the world has ever experienced, I want Him to find us lifting our voices to Him while we wait.
We take what He gives, and we call it abundantly more. Here in the cheerio spills and the unprecedented lockdown, here in the middle of a life you didn’t plan or a scenario you never could have imagined, He is giving you good gifts, He is doing far more than you expect, and He will be glorified. When we fix our eyes on Him, He is always glorified.
What messes feel overwhelming right now?
Can you shift your perspective enough to see, to believe that He wants to meet you here, too?
Where is there abundance for you today and how can you thank Him for it?
