I have probably said this before, but I love how the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper are so similar to things we do daily. We eat, usually communally, and we bathe (hopefully daily, unless you are a new parent then it might be bi-weekly). Tonight as I washed my littlest little’s hair I watched as the water rippled down her forehead. I was reminded of my own baptism, done as an infant, and the covenant made on my behalf by my parents−to raise me up to know and love Jesus. I was reminded of my own covenant, made years later, as an adult, being dipped under the cool water, running through my hair and eyes, telling the world that I was His.
The sacraments are defined as “outward signs of an inward grace”*. We do these things as memorials, celebrations of grace lavished. Charles Spurgeon says, “It is intended as a memorial of Christ, and it is intended as a shouting or a manifestation of our faith in Christ, and of Christ’s death, to others.” We do them ceremoniously, and yet, we find glimpses of them in our every day−as I serve dinner plates, and cut food into bite-sized pieces. As I wash away the grime of the day from rosy cheeks and chubby fingers, I can see, feel, touch the Divine in the midst of my mundane.
How quickly I forget! How hasty I am to bog down under the weight of terminal laundry and dishes that multiply. How forgetful I am to find gratitude for grace when all I see are startling news alerts and the piling of bills. And what grace it is, that He gave up heaven to live the grunge existence of broken beings. He left the feasting table of His father to sit at one his calloused hands made, with people who smelled of fish and sheep. How quickly I forget that the bread broken and wine poured was His body on the cross−for me.
“Believe me, Beloved, this Truth of God is so simple, that while I speak, I can half fancy some of you saying, “Why does he not tell us something new?” But let me say to you, it is always a new Truth and there is no Truth which the Christian heart more readily forgets! Oh, that I could always feel that He loved me and gave Himself for me!” (Spurgeon)
Let my daily tasks, my monotony, change in the ever re-creating hands of the Father, that they become joy-filled monuments to all He has given me in His mercy. And as I take a moment in breaking bread and washing feet and heads, that I would be filled with the surprise of joy that is gratitude. That I would invite Him in−even into my laundry room, piled high, or my kitchen, full of dishes and stray Cheerios. To hear His song in the giggles of little girls, and to find His voice over the drone of the vacuum. That my familiar world-view would shift into an everyday kind of Holy. Spurgeon, again, said it best, “Familiarity with Jesus is the highest reverence!”
Oh, that we would become familiar with Him in our day-to-day! That we might taste and see and remember all that He has done. That He has woven the treasure of the Gospel even into the cotton lining of our human existence!
*Definition found on dictionary.com
**Spurgeon quotes taken from his sermon “The Lord’s Supper—simple But Sublime!” JULY 1, 1909. Read the full text here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons55.xxvii.html
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