Ephesians 3:20-21

Ephesians 3:20-21 

New International Version 

  This verse sat in the back of my mind all day yesterday.  I don't know what it is about this verse or this time -- maybe the Holy Spirit is simply reminding me not to think too small.  Imagine with me, for a second, that you were present with God one half second before creation, and God asked you what God should create.  Would you have thought of this universe, in all its beauty and complexity?  Or imagine that God set you on the earth after it had been made, once the land had been carved from the sea, and God told you that God was about to create things called animals, and asked you to dream of them.  Would you have dreamed up the porcupine and the platypus and the porpoise and the pigeon and the praying mantis?  Imagine God told you that God was going to create a community of believers -- would you have dreamed up something as diverse and beautiful as the body of Christ, filled with people from every place of every color?  

  Now imagine that you lived in Jerusalem in 10 B.C. and you were poor and hopeless and paralyzed and God told you that God was going to send you a Savior.  What would you have pictured?  Would you have pictured someone who looked like you, who identified with your poverty, who listened to you and acknowledged you and honored you and then offered you eternal life with peace and joy?  Could you have dreamed up something like that? Or would you have asked for something smaller?

  When I was much younger, my uncle Hugh told me he was taking me to a breakfast buffet.  In my mind, I pictured your typical buffet, but upon arrival, I was stunned at the bountiful display that was overwhelming several tables.  Somewhere, there still exists the picture I took of the buffet.  I had never seen such a breakfast.  It was more than I ever could have asked or imagined.

  God is able to do so much more than we can ask or imagine.  May we open our hearts to the amazing things God has in store, in this life and beyond, and let us pray for the wisdom to celebrate the greater vision of God.