Beyond Pumpkin Bread

Ps. 145: 17 – “Everything God does is right – the trademark on all his works is love.”

I made some pumpkin bread yesterday. I’m taking it to some friends today. They are having a very rough time. The pumpkin bread is a token of love.  That’s all. It doesn’t even begin to help or alleviate their pain. It doesn’t even put a dent in it.

And then this verse is put before me this morning.  And I think about my friends. Thoughts flick through my head and questions abound. Each question, I am sure, has already been asked and explored by my friends many times over.

I got nothing.

In fact, the cursor on this screen taunts me. “You’ve got nothing to say,” it says, “You’re blank.”

The pumpkin bread is a pitiful attempt to make it all better. I know these friends will appreciate the pumpkin bread. In fact, experience has shown that people tend to overly enjoy this particular recipe. And it says “we love you,” to my friends. It says, “You are not alone.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the verse above just sits there. I KNOW everything God does is right. I KNOW this world is not perfect. I KNOW things screw up. I KNOW God does not screw up. I KNOW everything God does is right. So………do RIGHT, God! Do RIGHT by these people. Whatever RIGHT is, DO it. And give them eyes to see it and hearts to feel it and faith to know it. Open their eyes and enlarge their hearts and increase their faith so that the evidence is before them that you are doing right – because it’s hard to see that today. They need some help in claiming this verse, and so do I.

And still, all I have is the pumpkin bread.

I look around and I see God’s love abounding, in big and little ways – God’s trademarks.  So, is the pumpkin bread a token or a trademark? Yes. It’s a token. Beyond providing a very temporary and very teeny bright spot in their day, it evaporates very quickly. And it’s a trademark. It’s God’s love. That’s not temporary, nor is it teeny. It’s huge.

It’s beyond our understanding. I remember recently watching a Louie Giglio clip of him talking about the universe and the planets. Find it and watch it. God really is beyond our grasp. We really are infinitesimal, smaller than the pumpkin bread, really. We’re less than a blip. And yet He loves us. I got nothing because I am nothing. My friends are nothing. BUT, He loves us.

Hey friends – He loves us to the point of inspiring me to bake. Why would He take the time or the interest to do that? Why bother? Because He loves us that much. When one looks at the contrast between His hugeness and our nothingness, and then looks around and actually sees what He does for us – it’s rather amazing, really.

But I’m not amazed right now. And neither are my friends. They are down low. They are in a pit. I’m down there with them. We can cry and be angry. And that’s okay. We can have our moment. But maybe, when we’re done having our moment, like little children, we can hold up our arms and asked to be picked up and loved.

LORD of this universe, God-of-the Angel Armies, please pick my friends up and love them.

It says You will, right there in the Bible.

Otherwise I got nothing.

You are my Rock and you are their Rock too.  I believe You will.