I just got back from the grocery store. I had to pop over to pick up some salad and soy sauce for dinner tonight. The head honchos were at the grocery store giving their annual review!
Never in my life have I seen any grocery store as absolutely perfect as that grocery store was just now.
Every single fruit and vegetable in the produce section was lined up as if in preparation for a magazine photo shoot. The berry cartons and bags of cherries were perfection!
Every cucumber, lined up perfectly … every potato, lined up perfectly … every apple, lined up perfectly … every lemon, every lime, lined up to perfection! It was something else to see! The banana display was flawless. I actually felt guilty taking a bunch of bananas from the rows of perfection.
It was all so impressive I was woefully tempted to pull out my phone and take a photo to show you. But then I was worried I might cast a negative light on the department-head who was in the process (at that very moment) of being reviewed … because the head honcho was, at that very moment, walking around pointing out things that needed adjusting, and she was taking photos so she could fix it later.
Moving on … every deli sandwich in the deli department was lined up in the cooler to perfection. Every carton of cookies in the bakery department was displayed with absolute perfection!
Every case of Coke and Sprite was stacked to perfection!
Every chip bag on the chip aisle was arranged to perfection!
Every can and jar on every shelf was absolutely perfect! No gaps! No missing cans. Everything lined up just right.
Every item in the dairy cases was perfection. I felt really guilty taking a package of butter from the case and ruining their perfect display. I noticed a department-head sneaky-fixing a dairy case after a customer, to make it perfect when he thought nobody was watching.
Honestly, it’s downright stressful to be a customer when the head honchos are hanging out in every department.
On my way back home, I couldn’t help but think: Jesus is biggest head honcho there ever was … and yet Jesus doesn’t walk through our life critiquing it and requiring perfection! That’s a radical thought!
Jesus knows our lives are messy. Life is hard. Life is messy. And Jesus doesn’t require perfection of us! That’s mind-blowing!
Jesus doesn’t give us an “Annual Review” and point out every little detail where we’ve failed to be perfect.
If a grocery store is going to be helpful to the customers, then the customers are going to wind up making a mess of the perfection. The customers are going to pick up a bunch of bananas, decide this bunch is too green, then put it back again to select a different bunch. And in the process, they’re going to wind up “messing up the perfection.”
Customers are going to take things from the shelves, and gaps are going to be left behind here and there.
This is what happens as we go about life doing our daily living. We pour out ourselves to be a good worker at our job; we pour ourselves out to love others well and to be a good parent to our kids; etc. … And in the process, the “perfection” gets “messed up.” Everyone is taking pieces of us, and there winds up being “gaps” left behind here and there.
Jesus is the biggest head honcho there ever was, but he doesn’t critique and criticize our life, expecting flawless perfection of us. No. Instead, he walks around the different “departments of our life” with us and he helps us straighten up the mess at the end of each day.
He helps us take inventory.
He helps us fill in any missing gaps.
He helps us “restock the shelves” of our life, when we’re depleted and empty.
He refills the “empty cooler cases” of our life back up with berry cartons (so to speak).
He brings peace … not stress.
He brings restoration.
Jesus speaking: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. … Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” – Matthew 11:28-29
(As an aside … some Christians live their lives as if Jesus is one of those head honchos at the grocery store just now. It’s downright stressful to do life together with these types of people. They are constantly worried about being “good enough” … constantly worried about being “judged.” And just like the department-head sneaky-fixed the dairy case after a customer, so too these Christians are in constant fear of being judged, and not being “perfect” enough. If this is you, Jesus isn’t judging you like that. Jesus doesn’t require “perfection” like that. If you are in a church with primarily super-pious judgy people, for sure they are like the grocery store head honchos just now … examining and requiring “perfection.” But Jesus isn’t like that.)
