Hey, Cobblestone,
Have a seat. Relax. Be nourished. Take your time. Stick
around for seconds. There’s no rush.
As you graze the abundance of the table, your enemies will
snarl and slobber, straining at their harnesses to have at you. They will wail
and moan at their sudden misfortune, for they thought you were easy prey. But
you are not. And neither am I.
Our eyes will be no help in seeing the greater part of what
happens around us – the reality that is no less real for being invisible – the
reality described by the psalmist as follows:
You prepare a
table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows (Psalm 23:5).
Our Shepherd King creates sanctuary in the unlikeliest
places. That is his specialty. He is the one who makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and
shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire (Psalm 46:9). He piles
up nourishment and refreshment and Shalom in heaps – and invites us to table.
He turns to the enemies of our souls, puts a holy and unapproachable finger in
the middle of his chest and says, “Nope. These are mine.”
Our eyes, truly, will be more hindrance than help in
understanding what the Shepherd King is up to, but our souls will perceive his
power and love, and long to enter in. The question “on the table” at the moment
is, What will we do with the sanctuary and abundance he creates for us?
In our family history, there was a time when our early
brothers and sisters ran to find help somewhere besides the Lord our God. If
you’re not familiar with the story, their choice of allies will shock you. The
prophet Isaiah recorded the Father’s displeasure like so:
“Ah, stubborn
children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!” (Isaiah 30:1-2)
Shocked? I used to be – until finally I noticed the same
tendency in myself (and many of my contemporaries… nothing personal, Church) –
the stubborn inclination toward finite resources.
There’s a tattoo I’ve wanted for years. Being a cheapskate,
I’ve so far avoided it, but if ever I cut loose the funds, the tat will consist
of two phrases from the same chapter of Isaiah that I drew from just now. In
Hebrew script, reading right-to-left, beginning on the lower right forearm and
moving toward the wrist would be “In
repentance and rest is your salvation” (Isaiah 30:15a). Hopping over to the left wrist and continuing up onto the lower
left forearm would be “in quietness and
trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15b).
Whaddya think? Good?
Well, besides fiscal conservatism, there’s another stop sign
in the way of going under the pin-and-ink, and that stop sign consists of the
next phrase from Isaiah 30:15 – “but you
would have none of it.” Surely, this bit of prophecy would have to go on a
gluteus maximus region. But(t), would have none of it – and I’m just not ready
to go there. Unless/until the Lord confirms that he has squashed in me those
stubborn inclinations toward finite resources, I dare not receive the first two
phrases, and tattoo artists will have to drum up business elsewhere.
While we have a moment yet, let’s get our heads together and
see if we might begin to find a way out of the illusion of self-sufficiency. I
have a few ideas, beginning with…
Give up on claiming victim status. Though it’s the front-running
tactic of our day, timeless Scripture says you and I are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I
am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present
nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord (Romans 8:37-39). ‘Nuff said on that idea. One more…
Stand in the option that glorifies our Shepherd King. Up
until lately, the only two options offered by the world have been “fight” and
“flight.” More recently, we have “shelter in place,” which is far worse than
either of the previous two. And all along, the children of the eternal Father
have had this standing offer: “Fear
not, stand firm,
and see the salvation of the Lord, which
he will work for you today” (Exodus 14:13). Give the enemy a black eye
without even taking a swing, simply by giving credit where credit is due.
If today resembles any other day, you and I will have
multiple occasions to roll out those tactics and disassemble the illusion.
If it takes a psalmist to give us words for describing what
is already real, where’s the harm in that? Most of our walk-around-world
existence is tied to metaphor anyway. “You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head
with oil; my cup overflows.” And in addition to what our minds are able to
do with the words, I think the Father would be pleased if we asked for another
dimension of understanding: the ability to project the whole scene on the backs
of our eyelids. Picture it as a panorama – the table spread over with goodness,
and yes, the snarling, slobbering enemy too – and the Shepherd King, fierce and
invincible, standing between.
There could, very well, be more light and less shadow when
our eyes are reopened.
Grace and Peace (and tats, too, if that’s your thing),
John
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