March 14, 2021
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The blessing of the Lord makes rich… - Proverbs 10:22
Today, as we prepare for worship, I want to share a story from a little book entitled Life’s Extras by Archibald Rutledge. Rutledge writes:
I made a casual acquaintance on a train one day speeding across the autumn landscaped. The conversation seemed thoughtful, reflective, a little wistful as we talked about the things we saw from the car window. At last we came to a big meadow wherein were grazing half a hundred beef cattle. I said something inane about the prosperity of the country, the glowing future of the livestock industry, and so forth. “look at those little daisies,” he said, pointing to a bright patch of them in a far corner of the meadow. Then he added, “cattle somehow can‘t thrill me. There’s more hope for humanity in a wild flower than in tons of beef.”
Long after he left me, I kept thinking of what he said, wondering just what he had meant. His idea, of course, was that a wild flower is one of life’s extras, one of those things that we do not have to have but which we enjoy all the more for that very reason.
The more I thought about this, the more it appeared that Creation supplies us with two kinds of things; necessities and extras. Sunlight, air, water, food, shelter – these are the necessities. With them, we can exist. But moonlight, the sunrise and sunset, the stars that twinkle at night, these are extras; music, flowers, beautiful fragrances, the song the wind makes rustling through the trees, all life’s extras.
It is life’s extras that make it enjoyable.
It is life’s extras that we experience the grace of the Holy Spirit, the divine love of God that surpasses all understanding. The little extras of knowing someone and being in relationship, of falling in love, of holding a new born baby. Oh for us to know the grace of God that each little extra has given. And I look at you this day, and having known each of you. You have made my life a little extra special.
I’m always amazed at our Almighty God who could do all that needs to be done in an instant, in the flash of an eye, yet, God believes in the extras, calls us to enjoy the little things, and encourages us to put the pieces together, because there’s just more joy in doing the work, in creating, and assembling. Because therein we get to experience the extras that make life worth living.
May God’s blessings richly bless you with all the extras you can imagine. God love seeing you smile at his extras, and so do I. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
Sam