The Picnic....

We had a Sunday school picnic. They said, "Be at the park at 4:30 Saturday. Bring your supper and we'll furnish the tea."

Well, I came home at the last minute, and when I got ready to pack my lunch, all I could find in the refrigerator was one dried up piece of bologna and just enough mustard in the bottom of the jar so that I got it all over my knuckles when I tried to get it out.

And there were just two stale pieces of bread. So.......I made my bologna sandwich and wrapped it in a brown paper bag and took off for the picnic.

When it came time to eat, I sat at the end of the table and took out my sandwich. But the people next to me, well---the lady was a good cook. And she had cooked all day and she had fried chicken and potato salad and baked beans and home made rolls and sliced tomatoes and stuffed celery and deviled eggs and pickles and olives---and to top it off, two great big homemade chocolate pies.

And they spread it all out beside me, and there I was---with my bologna sandwich.

But they said to me, "Why don't we just put it all together?"

"Oh, no---I couldn't do that---I couldn't even think of it"---and I was embarrassed.

"Oh, come on.......there's plenty of chicken and pie---plenty of everything---and we just LOVE bologna sandwiches. Let's just put it all together."

So I did. And there I sat. Eating like a king when I came like a pauper.

And I get to thinking. I think of ME---sharing in the very being of God. When I think of how little I bring, and how much He brings---and that He invites me to share.

I know I should be shouting from the house tops, but I'm so filled with awe and wonder that I can hardly be heard.

I know I don't have enough love or faith or grace or mercy or wisdom---but He has.

He has all those things in abundance, and He says, "Let's just put it all together. Everything that I possess is available to you. Everything that I am and can be to a person, I will be to you."

And, when I think about it like that, it really amuses me---to see somebody running around through life hanging on to their dumb bag and their stale bologna sandwich---saying "God's not gonna get MY sandwich, no siree---not mine!"

Did you ever see anybody like that? Just so needy and about half starved to death, hanging on for dear life?

It's not that He needs your sandwich.

You need His chicken.