A Tangible Taste

Last Friday morning the children were all "up and at 'em" BEFORE 6AM.

I did not get to shower. Or get dressed. Barely got my contacts in.

In the haze of poor eyesight and sleep deprivation (not a good night for the teething twins), I felt my way to the coffee maker while stumbling over children trying to be "silly". I watched as my husband was able to get ready, shower and all, in 4.5 minutes and feeling bad that, yet again, I only had dry cheerios-in-a-cup to offer him as breakfast-on-the-go. By the time the little hand was on the eight, I was tempted to see if it was stuck, 'cause I could have sworn it should have been at the twelve...and I was twenty steps behind even so. I felt gross, the house looked a mess and the children were already getting restless.

In short, I was drowning in the continual rapids of constant demands.

At a moment of near-surrender, there was a knock at the door.

Plucking children off my weary, robe-clad body, I hesitantly walked over to open our double-locked front door. This is the pretty face that I saw:

She lives a few houses down the road. Her van was full of her children, one ready to be dropped off at school. Dressed in a fun floral skirt and pretty sweater, she held out a note with 2 warm scones in one bag and a whipped, creamy concoction in a container.

I apologized for not being dressed yet did not feel at all as though I would have had to.

She understood.

She dropped the "life-saver" items in my hands and like an angel,

left as quickly as she appeared. At just the right moment.

In all her van-driving, child-toting, scone-delivering glory.

I hurried into the kitchen.

My heart was already lighter.

And wait, was that a real smile on my face?

Indeed!

The card came out of the envelope first, and this is what is said:

This is what she brought.

It more than made up for the raisin bran muffin crumbs I was left to lick

for breakfast earlier. It was, in all it's deliciousness, a tangible  taste of God's care for me in the midst of my mundane daily duties.

I have just recently met Rachel. We do not know each other all that well.

We've shared coffee together for a grand total of ONE time.

And yet, this is a woman who knows how to love her neighbor.

I have often wondered what would happen if we took the whole 'Love your neighbor as yourself' thing literally?

What I write next is more for those who claim to be 'Christian' (which, unfortunately, can have such a negative connotation to those who have worn the label, without having been transformed by the Love), than those who do not. Read either way, if you care to.

I wonder what would happen if we didn't constantly pile into our cars, and drive out of our neighborhoods to attend meetings, small groups, Bible Studies (NONE of which are negative or unworthy activities in and of themselves. Please don't read what I'm not saying.) in which we try to devise ways to 'attract' people back to the building in which these meetings, small groups and Bible Studies occur. This leads me then to wondering...

...who has ever been attracted to a relationship when it's discovered there is an agenda behind it and that you'll only ever be fully accepted and loved when you follow along suit? Really. Have you ever been enthusiastically approached by someone in a multi-tiered/pyramid type business, who acted as thought they simply wanted to get together with you, but then, as you were talking, realized they wanted you to either buy or sell under them? Has a mutually respecting and loving relationship ever been nurtured under such a guise?

I have my doubts.

Probably because I would run the other way if it happened to me.

I have also considered: what makes those who follow in the ways of Christ think that an event or a program, and the agenda behind them, is going to produce a personal understanding of God's love for them? {I am not suggesting that God cannot use an event to change lives. Certainly He has and He can! But such an event simply cannot, in and of itself, continue producing expressions of God's love and care to those He created}.

We were not made to 'plug into' a program. We were created to be sustained by God, who is Love, Himself. It would seem to only make sense then, that we who have come to begin to understand our need for sustenance (i am still being made aware!), respond by opening up our lives, offering 'tangible tastes' of the Love that keeps us going through the

mountain tops, dark valleys and every part of the panoramic scene of life in between.

This does not mean simply making, baking and dropping off homemade scones (although that's a great start). It does not involve writing a check or signing up for anything.

It means opening up my life...loosening up the time I've been given...and perhaps, as I have been considering for some years now, considering the lives under the roofs that are next or near to yours are not there by accident. Maybe we live where we do and daily see who we see for a reason. Even if we live in the middle of the mountains or smack dab in the center of the dessert. Surely there are those who, by there very daily appearance in your life, are for all intents and purposes, your "neighbor".

I don't want to come across like some Utopian, head high-in-the-sky, let's all hold hands and sing 'Kum Bah Yah" type...or one who thinks she's onto something special. I think my thoughts are quite simplistic and boil down to this:

What would happen, if like Rachel so beautifully illustrated, every person touched by God's love, became tangible tastes of it to the people in their literal or figurative neighborhood...no matter the differences in our skin color, our Sunday morning routines, our family situation or our moral codes?

Have you ever been given an extra-special tangible taste of God's love?I (and probably other readers) would love to hear of it if you desire to share it!