lavished

"...to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us."  Ephesians 1:6-8a

Back when I was a wee tot and up until my teenage years, my family would gather with my grandmother, my aunt and uncle, all my cousins, and other a few other miscellaneous shirttail relations to celebrate Thanksgiving Day every year, usually at my aunt Helen's house.  (Almost everyone I know who is close to my age has had an aunt Helen.  Do you?  I think maybe it's the law.)  We would, of course, consume turkey and dressing, and there would always be mashed potatoes.

Mashed potatoes AND dressing!  Did we really need both??  Do we now?  Yes, I believe we do.

But one thing I always remember about those dinners, and indeed many of my Thanksgiving dinners even to this day, is the gravy.  I would (and still do) enjoy ladling that rich, thick, light brown turkey gravy over the potatoes, dressing, turkey, any adjacent vegetables, and sometimes even the jello salad, although not on purpose.  So, whenever I read the word "lavished" I think of that rich gravy at Thanksgiving dinner.  I lavished the gravy on my plate, just as God, according to this verse, lavished His grace on us.  He poured it out, covering us under a rich coat of thick, Godly grace.  Without our covering of Godly Gravy, we were quite unpalatable to God, but once he has ladled a heaping helping of gooey gravy over us, once he has lavished us with His rich grace, His mouth waters for us.

Uh, I think I'd better let that analogy end there before I have God consuming us, which doesn't sound quite right - it's only an analogy, people!  On the other hand, there's that passage from Revelation 3 where Jesus tells the church of Laodicea that he's going to spit them out of his mouth because they're lukewarm, the assumption being that if they were nice an hot, He would go ahead and eat them, which in that context seems like a good thing.  So I don't know about that, but I do like the idea of his mouth watering when he sees us covered with His rich grace gravy!

Here's something I notice about this verse.  It begins by saying that he adopted us as sons (according to the previous verse) "to the praise of the glory of His grace," and then says that we have redemption according to the riches of His grace.  Glory of His grace...riches of His grace.  Makes me wonder why Paul chose to make that distinction.  Is there a difference?  Is it simply literary license?  I took a look at all the popular translations and they all seem to use the words "glory" and "riches" in one form or another in these verses, so evidently it isn't just a quirk of the NASB.

I suppose that the "glory of His grace" is something we witness when we see it at work.  In other words, when we witness God's incredible grace at work in the world, bringing the world back to Him and working to restore all things through Christ, and how His grace works through His people to accomplish His will in the world, we're witnessing the glory of His grace.  The "riches of His grace" is something that we experience when it's working in our own lives, when he lavishes his grace on us.

We can enjoy the glory of a nice turkey gravy, steaming hot in the gravy boat in the middle of the Thanksgiving dinner table, its aroma filling the air with spicy goodness, and we can even appreciate how good it looks poured out on someone else's plate.  But in order to enjoy the richness of that gravy for ourselves, we have to ladle it over our own potatoes and take a good healthy bite, savoring the richness in our own mouths, our own bodies.

In the same way, we can appreciate the glory of God's grace when we see it at work, but in order to truly experience the riches of His grace for ourselves, we have to allow him to lavish it over us, covering us with it while it's piping hot, making us palatable to God, His mouth watering for us so that he doesn't have to spew us out, but that He'll savor us, enjoying us, longing for more of us, loving us through the covering of the blood of Christ, God's holy gravy.

Father, cover me daily with the rich, glorious gravy of your grace through Christ Jesus.  Help me to always experience the riches of your grace and to appreciate the glory of your grace at work in this world.  Help me to allow you to work your grace through my life for your sake, for your glory, to the riches of the glory of your grace.  You might need a napkin.