Gratefulness

Image result for little red hen book

I don’t know about you, but I have to remind myself regularly that God’s way of thinking and mine are quite often at odds with each other.

That’s why Jesus had to tell so many parables. He was describing a culture that his disciples had never heard of and were struggling to understand. Most of the time they still didn’t get it.

Quite often I miss it too.

Many years ago, I was sitting in bed with my young children, reading them the story of the Little Red Hen. I assume you are familiar with this children’s fable, but if not, here is a summary.

The Little Red Hen, who lives in a farmyard, fancies some nice freshly baked bread. So she asks her farmyard friends to help her go harvest some wheat for the flour. One by one, the pig and the duck, the rat and the cat, all say no. They are basically lazy and can’t be bothered. So she goes and harvests the wheat herself.

Then she asks for help to thresh the wheat. Again her short-sighted mates decline. So, she does it herself. The same thing happens with milling the flour and baking the bread.

Soon a beautifully baked loaf emerges from the oven all golden brown and the smell wafts its way around the farmyard. Of course, her predictable friends all come running, hoping for a slice. At this point, the Little Red Hen gets her moment. ‘Oh no!’ she exclaims, ‘you didn’t help me harvest the wheat or thresh it or mill it or bake the bread so you don’t get to help me eat it’. And she promptly tucks into the freshly baked treat to enjoy it all by herself.

I can still remember the pleasure that I felt as I was reading this to my kids, snuggled together in bed. ‘Oh I love this story’ I thought to myself. ‘ I love that clever, hard-working hen. She’s so responsible, so independent, so gutsy. ‘

I guess I related to her.

I’m a first-born, responsible type of gal. I play by the rules and I work hard. As I sat there with my kids under the duvet, in the middle of a life that was too busy and church responsibility that felt unappreciated, I comforted myself with the thought of blessings that would compensate me. I salivated at the thought of these golden baked rewards that I had earned, special rewards just for me.

But I had it a little twisted.

Because there is absolutely no place in God’s Kingdom for entitlement, only gratitude.

And, the blessings that come from obedience are for sharing.

Every good thing I do or have comes only from Jesus. I cannot even worship Him without the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. I can’t be a good wife or mom on my own. I cannot serve Him, love Him or love others without His grace on my life.

And gratitude is so incredibly powerful. It kills ego and it grows into selfless generosity.

If I really believe that every good thing I have is from God, I will be happy to share it. I will never expect special treatment or privileges. I won’t keep track of the things I have done for God, expecting my equally large slice of reward.

I will be blessed and filled-up in order to pour out.

I will feel able to give out encouragement and love and acceptance because I know there are endless reserves of them all in Jesus when I am in need. I will be open-handed with my time and my friendship, not waiting for proof that someone is worthy of them.

And there is such freedom in this kind of generosity. I am free to stop thinking about myself and worrying about my needs. I am free to love and give extravagantly and to let others shine. I am free to keep giving without any thought to stocktaking.

Because this Kingdom has a King and He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

He modelled this topsy-turvy Kingdom living when He left behind privilege and made Himself nothing. He was rejected by His own creation and betrayed by friends. He healed and performed miracles that were met with antagonism and unbelief. He was alone when in obedience He went to the cross and was crucified.

And after all of this, He was raised to life and received His reward, the keys of life and death, which He freely shares with His beloved humanity, without reservation.

There is no place in this Kingdom for Little Red Hens.

It is a Kingdom of gratefulness and generosity where egos die and freshly baked gifts are sliced and shared and all blessings become worship.

Take time to be thankful today. Find someone to share your blessings with. Find someone to share yourself with. Be generous with your words at every opportunity. Joyfully live the upside-down, kingdom life. Fill up and pour out. Smile at a grumpy person. Forgive someone who hasn’t even noticed they have hurt you. Share something you earned with someone undeserving.

Let gratitude for God’s overwhelming, unmerited grace colour everything you do and say so that all who cross your path will know, without a doubt, what kingdom you belong to.

I am sure you, like me, watched in disbelief as Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was engulfed in flames. My husband and I had our wedding in Paris and so we felt personal sadness to see this iconic landmark so badly damaged.

There was a particular poignancy that the fire happened a week before Easter and so photojournalists competed to get the perfect picture of the inside of the church. The winning shot was on every newspaper and every digital outlet the next day – a large golden cross on an altar, rising undamaged from the rubble, highlighted by dusty sunbeams.

And I couldn’t help but think of the utter simplicity of the gospel. When we take away all the religious clutter that we so often add, we are left with an absolutely perfect love story that is without equal. And it stands alone, complete. Our religiosity adds nothing. Zero. Nada.

We humans are funny. We somehow think that Almighty God needs manmade, ornate adornments. And yet all of creation exists to worship Him. Every mountain peak, every ocean belongs to Him (Psalm 95). The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19).

Isaiah 66.1 says it best. ‘This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that? Could you build me such a resting place?’

It is just so easy to complicate God’s story.

And it is easy to complicate my response to it.

It is so easy to try and add to what God has done, to think that religion and ritual add value to God’s gift or make our worship more pleasing to a distant and difficult God.

But when Jesus said, ‘It is finished’, He meant it. When the curtain that concealed the holiest area of the Temple was torn in two, it was clear that God’s presence could once again be accessed directly and worship would now be based on internal obedience, not outward ritual.

But some of us struggle to accept a free gift. It makes us very uncomfortable.

When I was growing up, we had an apple orchard. In apple season the trees would produce far more than we could handle, even with my industrious mom canning endless jars of applesauce and apple butter. So, one day we decided to put a basket of apples out by our fence with a sign saying, ‘Help yourself’. You would not believe the arguments we had with people who insisted on paying us for them! Their pride just wouldn’t let them receive free apples. In the end, most of the fruit was spoiled and had to be thrown away. What a waste.

And so it often is with faith. It feels good to offer God something in return for His sacrifice. It somehow relieves our guilt or makes us feel less helpless to attempt to add to what He has done. Religion is an easy way to earn something that is offered as a free gift of grace.

Notre Dame is a lovely structure and it is historically significant but it is just a building. We are no closer to God in a fancy cathedral than we are in our back yard or driving in our car or sitting in the hall our church rents on a Sunday. Worship is about a relationship, not ritual. Liturgy is lifeless without love.

And even though I am tempted sometimes to earn what I have been given, the cross reminds me just how silly that really is. Because the gospel story is very simple.

I desperately needed a Saviour.

He came.

It is straightforward and it is beautiful. It is all I need. It is enough to fuel my worship for all of eternity.

There is nothing to add to it but gratefulness, nothing to do but to give my whole heart to Jesus in trust and obedience.

Whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy the simplicity of the cross of Jesus Christ. Worship Him in grand buildings or rented halls or living rooms. Sing with choirs or with your kids and a CD. Enjoy His free gift with a thankful heart. Sit in the sun, breathe, smile, rest.

It is finished. And it has just begun. And we are right in the middle of all the glory of what God has done and what He is doing and what He is yet to do.

Happy Easter.

DSC_0717 (2).JPG