Jesus took every opportunity to maximize the potential of every moment of His brief ministry. Every one of His words and deeds served the Father’s purpose of reconciling men to God for eternity. But in providing salvation for all mankind, Jesus never lost sight of the importance of any individual in this world or their specific needs. It mattered not whether a person was alone or in a crowd. To Jesus, each one stood out front and center.
A quote from The Love of the Cross, 2016, by Cathy Scott, p. 186.
____________________________________________________________________ The Lesson of the Thanksgiving:
Question: How great (mighty, powerful, strong ) is our God? – Can God save us?
The people who came to our home that day for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner were an ecumenical and international group of Christians. They had been in church with us that Sunday morning where we were worshiping our God together with a unified voice. These same people were the ones who had received the invitation from the pastor to join the Americans for the meal that we will never forget God serving to all who were present. These were His people, His Family, and God didn’t just tell us, but He also showed us, that His greatness—His power that made and holds all Creation together—is great enough to provide for the needs of all of His Family. That day in Spain we each took as much as we wanted, and our Father made sure that He kept supplying us with enough food on the buffet so that no one among us had to go away hungry. No matter how many people we may envision as one day participating in the wedding feast that God has said is coming and to which He has promised that we will one day be invited to attend, His power is more than sufficient to feed His Family forever. As long as need exists, God will continue to provide. He is more than well able to keep the world that He created alone going forever.
Leftovers That Aren’t
Question: How good (loving, kind, merciful) is our God? – Will God save us?
This time the situation is very different. There are no groups involved, only individuals, each one with his or her own need. Yet God met them all, large and small. He never differentiated between big needs and small ones but, instead, gave us each exactly what we were needing at that time in our lives.
- I wanted to give my fall flowers and gourds to someone who would enjoy having them. I needed a person who would be glad to accept them so they wouldn’t be wasted. God connected me with TFM.
- TFM wanted to know that she and her family were not alone in their suffering, that someone cared about the painful loss that she and her family were in the midst of experiencing. She and her family members also wanted to know that her aunt was with God, safe in His hands. God connected me with TFM, to whom I delivered the pumpkin pancakes, that she needed to receive, in order to be assured that God had her aunt in His care.
- My husband and I wanted coleslaw to eat with our Thanksgiving dinner, but we didn’t have the cabbage that we needed in order to make coleslaw. God connected us with the manager at the local restaurant. She needed someone who would accept her offer of cabbage because she didn’t want their extra cabbage to be wasted.
- Ms. J wanted to find employment after the death of her mother so that she could get out of her house and help to care for another. She needed someone to offer her such a job so that her skills wouldn’t be wasted.
- My husband and I wanted to find someone who could help care for me and our home on a part-time basis. We needed to find a woman who would accept our job offer. God connected us to Ms. J.
There are a good number of other want-and-need factors behind the events of this story that have not specifically been listed here. But they, like the ones above that are, all support the conclusion that would be difficult to miss in this story.
So good is God that He generously provides more provision than needed. Thereby God enables us to become more like Him. How? By generously giving our leftover provisions to others to help meet their needs. In that, God gives us a means of filling our need so that we can receive the more godly life that we want. Leftover provisions are only “left over” until they get where they’re going, and then they return to being provision again. This is the distribution system that God established in Jesus. Loving relationships are always built on giving.
So not only is God able, but He also is willing to give us all that we need to live in His greatness and goodness. It may take a mighty great God to give us salvation in the way that God has, but it takes a mighty good God to concern Himself with a bouquet of cut flowers and pancakes, as well as a head of grated cabbage.
GOD GIVES US WHAT WE NEED,
SO THAT WE CAN HAVE WHAT HE DESIGNED US TO WANT.
NO NEED IS TOO BIG FOR GOD TO BE ABLE TO PROVIDE IT,
AND NO NEED IS TOO SMALL FOR GOD TO BE WILLING TO PROVIDE IT!
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