Spoon-Fed Love

This is the time of the year I do not look forward to coming. No, I’m not talking about the holiday season, but rather the change of weather season. Here in South Texas, it’s either summer or winter, and that can, and does, switch back and forth day by day. Two days ago the temperature was near 8o degrees and yesterday sleet fell from the cold overcast sky all afternoon. Gee, I wonder why everyone’s sick? That’s the part I don’t look forward to. I generally make it through the first two cold fronts with only a few sniffles caused by cedar pollen, but the third cold front, most of the time, is the one that gets me. A good artic blast of cold will come through, chilling me to the bone and I know the next morning I’m going to wake up sick. Well, that’s where I’ve been for the past week, sick. I’ll keep spoon-feeding the medicine down, for this too shall soon pass.
In a dream, a man was having a conversation with the Lord and asked, “I would like to know what heaven and hell are like.” The Lord led the man to down a hall to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the man looked in. There in the middle of the room was a large table and in the middle of the table was a huge pot of stew, which smelled delicious, making the man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly looking. They appeared to be famished. Each person held a very long handled spoon which was strapped to their arm. It was possible to reach into the pot of stew and get a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arm, they could not get the spoon to their mouth. The man shuttered at their misery and suffering. The Lord said, “You have seen hell.” They went to the next room and opened the door. The scene was exactly the same as the first, big table, big pot of stew and long handled spoons strapped to each person’s arm. The only difference was the people looked well nourished, in fact a little plump, and they were laughing and talking as though enjoying themselves. The man turned to the Lord and said, “I don’t understand.” “It’s simple” said the Lord. “It requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy next door think only of themselves.
[John 17: 20-25] No, I don’t have the seasons mixed up. I know the birth of Christ is the reason for this season, so why would I pick a scripture from the time of His death? In the garden Jesus prayed for himself, the disciples and for all the believers to come, that’s you and me. And “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Then Jesus gave His all for you and me. God the Father gave us His son without a thought of gain. Jesus gave himself without a thought of gain. When you give this season, will you give without thought of gain? While teaching the birth of Christ to others and expressing your love with gifts, don’t forget to reach deep in the pot and feed them also, the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. For Jesus was born to die on a cruel cross, the perfect sacrifice to God for the sins of the world, saving us from ourselves, and that’s a spoon-full of love we could never get for our self, nor can we ever repay. Feed someone from God’s Word.