Filled to Overflowing“My cup overflows with blessings.” (Psalm 23:5)
The overflowing cup was a powerful symbol in the days of David.
Hosts in the ancient East used it to send a message to the guest. As long as the cup was kept full, the guest knew he was welcome. But when the cup sat empty, the host was hinting that the hour was late.
On those occasions, however, when the host really enjoyed the company of the person, he filled the cup to overflowing. He didn’t stop when the wine reached the rim; he kept pouring until the liquid ran over the edge of the cup and down on the table.
Have you noticed how wet your table is?
God wants you to stay. Your cup overflows with joy. Overflows with grace.
You have a place at God’s table. And he is filling your cup to overflowing.
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The clumsy boy who excels in studies, always surrounded by inquiring classmates when help and explanation is needed for the work, now finds himself standing alone awkwardly, neither of the 2 game teams of his classmates wanting him in their team.
The quiet simplistic girl, keeping to herself in a corner of the classroom. Too plain a jane for the guys to take note of, too borish and un-fashionable for any cliques among the girls.
A lady's first visit to a church, tired of her promiscuous lifestyle and late nights spent in the wrong arms. Her name, apparently having reached the church way before her, surrounded her with doubtful and questioning eyes from church members that caused even more discomfort and unease than wondering lewd eyes of her past male partners.
An elderly old man, with a face mapped full of wrinkles that spoke of the heartaches and sacrifices given to his family back in his heydays, now roaming the streets after being chased out and seen as a burdensome eccentric old nut.
People with unpopular, weird and conflicting viewpoints, thoughts and habits, opening up themselves to people, only to be dismissed, ignored and put down. And so they pipe down, enjoying whatever little ounce of seeming acceptance and belonging to a person or group, as long as they keep quiet or be who the others want them to be.
And somewhere out there...a heart once cherished and belonging to another, now refused and rejected, burdening with its scars and regrets, having been pulled, now left aside.
When a house, a clique, a group, a family, an organisation or a heart becomes too narrow and small to contain us, to delight in our presence....
From whom and whence, would come these words that we long for, that would bring rest and delight to a heart...
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[Wide Eyed] - Nicole Nordeman
Having lived in Hollywood for about a year
I was forced to come face to face
With many diverse people everyday
I was surprised and embarassed by how sheltered
My life had been until then...
Surrounding myself mostly with people who were like-minded
and consequently, safe to know
I really had to come to terms with my quickness to judge
To laugh, to dismiss anyone who threatened my sense of normalcy
And it made me wonder -
How would I have reacted to Jesus
If I'd met Him in Los Angeles?
When I met him on a sidewalk
He was preaching to a mailbox
Down on 16th Avenue
And he told me he was Jesus
Sent from Jupiter to free us
With a bottle of tequila and one shoe
He raged about repentance
He finished every sentence
With a promise that the end was close at hand
I didn't even try to understand
He left me wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
I was tongue tied, drawn by my conclusions
So I turned and walked away
And laughed at what he had to say
Then casually dismissed him as a fraud
I forgot he was created in the image of my God
When I met her in a bookstore
She was browsing on the first floor
Through a yoga magazine
And she told me in her past life
She was some plantation slave's wife
She had to figure out what that might mean
She believes the healing powers of her crystals
Can bring a balance and new purpose to her life
Sounds nice
She left me wide eye in disbelief and disillusion
I was tongue tied, drawn by my conclusions
So I turned and walked away
And laughed at what she had to say
Then casually dismissed her as a fraud
I forgot she was created in the image of my God
Not so long ago, a man from Galilee
Fed thousands with His bread and His theology
And the truth He spoke
Quickly became the joke
Of educated, self-inflated Pharisees like me
And they were wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
They were tongue tied, drawn by their conclusions
Would I have turned and walked away
And laughed at what He had to say
And casually dismissed Him as a fraud
Unaware that I was staring at the image of my God
