We sure enjoy eating a delicious meal, especially if it is eggplant
parmesan, my favorite. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water, and
just the thought of enjoying this special treat on the weekend brightens
the entire week. Even though I may have a week full of adversity, I will
end up with a heavenly meal! Yum!
The same is true for a drink of
freshly-squeezed carrot juice with ginger, as is made by the Moosewood
Restaurant in Ithaca. Just thinking about it makes me thirsty. This is
another brightener-up at the end of a tough week!
Still, no
matter how good these taste, they are only temporary and are quickly
forgotten-Until we have the opportunity to return to that particular
restaurant, that is, something most of us, me included, cannot afford to
do daily! Hopefully you are an exception . . .
Still, this kind
of food leaves us still wanting. It may be truly delicious, but it will
never fill us with inner peace, joy or love, and it can never give us a
palpable purpose. Nothing in this world can fill this emptiness that
most experience.
Last year we had the opportunity to camp for a
few days in Perce, Quebec. While there, we discovered a crevasse that
had been slowly forming over centuries, eroded by water and the
elements. In the 1920s, a woman named Madame Chauvin was so fascinated
by this crevasse that she invested her own savings to ensure that this
site would remain accessible to visitors year after year. For twenty
years she developed the visitor's site at the crevasse. She ensured that
the road leading to it was maintained, as well as the trail. It's no
wonder that this crevasse received the name of "Craque A Madame
Chauvin", or in more understandable words: "Crack of Mrs. Chauvin".
This was her fascination for a major part of her life. It gave her a
purpose. Unfortunately, this same purpose could not fill the crack
(emptiness) in her heart. Eventually that crack will become so eroded
that it will completely crumble into oblivion.
"How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took
over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were
so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in
front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they
stumbled into him and went sprawling." (Rom 9:32, MSG)
Love comes and
goes. So does food, work, hobbies, friends, and even purposes. Only One
can assure us: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which
I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:51, NIV2) and "Everyone
who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the
water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will
become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John
4:13-14, NIV2). Only One can fill us to overflowing, even filling in the
cracks that leave us wanting.
Enjoy your delicious meal, or as we
say in French, "Bon appetit!" Still, within hours you will be hungry
again. The only meal that will never leave us wanting is to experience
our Heavenly Father fully. It's not religion that will satisfy us. It is
our relationship with the One who made it possible for our hearts to be
abundantly filled for eternity.
Imagine being embraced by the
most powerful person of the universe, It will become a reality when we
start walking with Him. Nothing will faze us any longer, as His love
will sustain us no matter what our circumstances.
Where is my
eggplant parmesan? I have been waiting for it for months . . .
Rob Chaffart
