Live A Whole Lot Richer in Your Soul

Despite the nightmare I woke up with on Saturday, that I had gotten the wrong day for Easter dinner and was completely unprepared for the 10 people who would sit around my table, I did manage to get to the store on the correct day and buy all the fixins for our family dinner.

Except after shopping I realized I had forgotten one of the most important elements for our dinner table: Jell-O.

For many years I have used the very special mold given to me by my mother, to make my now-famous Jell-O beans. Could we even have Easter dinner without these? Wouldn’t that be like not having a Christmas tree in December or pumpkin pie in November? This could not be.

So at 8:00 Sunday morning I got dressed and went to Wal-Mart, where I purchased not one but two boxes of Jell-O. All was right with the world.

I was telling my daughter this story, and she said to me, “Did you look in the pantry for Jell-O?”

“Oh man,” I said. It never occurred to me.

We moved, you know. Now we’re living in the house with Texas. By that I mean my mother-in-law and her sister are the epitome of the extraordinary quality of hospitality that characterizes Texas women. If there’s going to be food on the table, it’s going to be good food and enough to feed you and 37 of your closest friends.

These ladies have a pantry that could double as a garage for a MINI Cooper, and the shelves are busting with nonperishables. My nephew just commented to me, “Grandma has a lot of food in her pantry!” I agreed.

Seven, in case you’re wondering. There are seven boxes of Jell-O in my mother-in-law’s pantry. I had to go look.

This is what it’s like to move into Jesus’ kingdom. We enter into this realm that has a Texas-sized supply of whatever we need, but we mentally live like we’re still on our own and having to provide everything for ourselves. Like going to Wal-Mart on a Sunday morning when what you need is in your own house.

Paul tells the believers:

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 4:19 NIV)

Such a lovely verse, but come on. You know we don’t live most of the time as if we believe this is true.

Except I’m telling you that I’ve just come through the most amazing season, where I kept asking God for things I needed and he kept pulling them out of his pantry as if it was no big thang. I know from experience that God is huge-pantry rich and he will meet all of our needs, as in all of them. Texas ladies have nothin’ on God’s hospitality, and that is not a small statement.

So don’t live the runnin’-to-Wal-Mart-on-Easter-morning life.

Ask God for what you need and relax. Keep asking and wait for his supply.