The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"The Gift"
As I helped an attendee return to their room yesterday after one of our services in a local retirement community, another member of the the congregation stopped me and handed me an item wrapped in a paper napkin.
Mrs. Betty attends our meetings regularly, and is as sweet a Christian woman as you will ever meet. She has faced many challenges through the years, but nothing hinders her faith in the Lord Jesus and genuine desire to honor Him. I view her as a wonderful example, encouragement, and challenge to more faithfully walk with our Lord, among many such people Frances and I are blessed to know in the facilities where we conduct services.
As Mrs. Betty handed the item to me, she smiled and said, "I want Frances to have this. It is a pendant my mother gave to me many years ago." Of course, I smiled and expressed gratitude for so sweet an expression from so sweet a Christian woman. On our way home, I took the package from my pocket and handed it to Frances. She unwrapped the napkin to find an absolutely beautiful butterfly pendant, which on the day we especially remember and honor the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was especially blessed. Nothing in the natural creation more vividly expresses the glory of the risen Christ than the butterfly who emerges from its cocoon of seeming death as one of God's most beautiful creations. Frances and I both thought about this as we marveled at the beauty of the gift and gave thanks for the even more beautiful heart of the giver. She wore the pendant at our family gathering yesterday, and we told the story of a gift given that in so many ways bears witness to the Gift given.
"He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not within Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).
"With Him." That is, with the risen Lord Jesus comes every provision and gift God bestows upon His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. Resurrection life teems in all things for those united to Him, fulfilling the Old Testament plea, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17). We do not always see, sense, or feel such grace in our present existence. It - He - ever abides upon and even within us nonetheless. This we must believe, first, because it is true, and then, because our experience of our Lord's risen reality requires our confidence in God's faithful Word. Most of all, we remember the sacrifice that made possible our Lord's resurrection, namely, His suffering and sorrowful death experienced because of our sins. To the degree He died, the glory of His resurrection shines forth in wondrous glory, a glory that must often be seen not with physical eyes, but with the eyes of the heart.
"Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29).
Mrs. Betty's gift to Frances served as one of those times when the Lord's risen glory seems to shine forth quite tangibly and visibly. In so many ways, such moments grace our hearts and lives as we "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7). When they happen, we give thanks and also determine that when we must trust God's heart and hand without evidence, the risen life of His Son no less shines upon and within us. Yes, how blessed it is to see the risen beauty of the Lord upon us, and how "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
"He is risen, as He said… Ye are also risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God."
(Matthew 28:6; Colossians 2:12)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."
(Matthew 10:29)
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