To Die For

Last night I began the preparations which continued into today, Easter Sunday. My daughter and her boyfriend are coming over for dinner this evening. I have triple checked everything five times. What does that even equal? The main dish, the side dishes, the salad, the dessert, the bread. The table is set. I've never been on time for anything (as my friends can testify), yet everything is ready and waiting over an hour early - and I have time to blog. As soon as my invitation was accepted I began planning. My heart is bursting with excitement to have them over and the meal is a very small token of my love. I've prepared this Easter dinner and done all I can to make it special, but it doesn't even touch the banquet that awaits us. Who am I to sit at that table, to partake of His love? His answer: "did your children have to earn the love that overflows in you? Did they do something special that made you feel this way? Or is it simply because they are yours?"

Jesus told a parable of a man who prepared a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, "Come, for everything is now ready." But they all alike began to make excuses why they couldn't come. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and alley of the town and bring in the poor, the blind and the lame." "Sir", the servant said, "what you ordered has been done, but there is still room." Then the master told his servant, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full." (Luke 14:16-24).

Not those who were "good enough" or those who had "earned" his invitation.

Jesus told His grieving Disciples "I go prepare a place for you." He has shown us not only that He is Who He claimed to be - God in the flesh - but that He has done what He promised. The banquet is prepared. Regardless of what others think of us, He's invited us. Like being on the island of misfit toys, we can feel unworthy and broken, and if others truly knew our hearts, they would want nothing to do with us. 

Amazingly, He's chosen us for that very reason!


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