For my Beloved calls to me and invites me to His feast, and instead of preparing my finest clothes and styling my hair, I am sitting on my couch at home and complaining that I am far too busy to bother…
I have been reflecting on invitations.
God has invited us into Heaven.
He has not done this because we deserve it. He has not done this because He is somehow less or reduced if we are not there with Him. He has done this because He loves us – with perfect love. And with that perfect love, God has invited us into Heaven.
And I believe that perhaps the most under-estimated miracle of all the world is this invitations of our Lord…
There He is – the eternal being who is completely perfect and whole with or without us… And even so, He choses to invite us to SHARE perfection with Him… And He sends this invitation even knowing that we are so ungrateful and so ignorant as to completely misunderstand the message of it…
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’ But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.” (Matthew 22:1-14).
I have only to think of this parable and I can see what a terrible waste it is to completely misunderstand the Goodness of God… You see, we are not invited to a funeral or a wake. We are not invited to a tragedy or a boring lesson. We are invited to a wedding – a feast a celebration a party. We are invited to an event where we can dance and sing and celebrate love and connections. We are invited to an event that is so wonderful.
And when we receive that invitation, we are so short-sighted and so unaware that we completely ignore it. We consider ourselves above it.
And it occurs to me how crazy this really is. You see, when Prince Harry married Megan Markle a few years ago, there were many celebrities invited to their wedding. People were sent special invitations and asked to attend both the ceremony and the reception afterwards. It was considered an honour and a privilege to attend. People wore their most expensive clothes and styled their hair in their most elaborate styles. People made sure that they were early and prepared and organised for the event.
And when I compare this behaviour to my own in rushing to prepare for the eternal wedding feast, I find myself hanging my head in shame. For my Beloved calls to me and invites me to His feast, and instead of preparing my finest clothes and styling my hair, I am sitting on my couch at home and complaining that I am far too busy to bother…
Shame on me…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.