Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There are some who seem to have a good time all the time, always upbeat and cheerful. They are the ones that Solomon described when he said, "He who is of a merry heart has a continual feast" (Prov. 15:15). Life is an endless picnic for them. Like King Midas of old, everything they touch seems to turn to gold, every day is like fun at Disneyland.
Just let them "Remember now [their] Creator in the days of [their] youth," the One who has given them their picnic (Eccl. 12:1). Their Creator is the same One as their Savior who says of us all, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). There's where your picnic has come from.
The towering truth of the Bible proclaims that our common life is the purchase of the death of the Son of God; "the Lord [the Father] has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." No one could have his picnic unless the Son of God had borne a corresponding weight of grief; "He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; ... He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Isa. 53:4-6). There is a divine, universal balance sheet; every laugh, every smile, has been purchased for the world's billions by the self-sacrifice of the One who went to hell that we might enjoy our heaven.
One thoughtful person awoke to this realization and declared with enthusiasm that every loaf of bread is stamped with the cross of Christ; never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he partakes anew of the Lord's Supper--often doing what Paul says never do--"whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27). Our common luncheon table is "the table of the Lord"! We've been just too blind to realize what life is all about.
When someone does something wonderful for us, we say "Thank you." There is an appropriate reciprocal consecration: Christ has consecrated Himself for us so we can live; now it is appropriate that we consecrate ourselves, this life He has given us, to His service--the motivation being a response to His love.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 31, 2007.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
