Yesterday, we started the day off with village ministry as usual. I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t really looking forward to another day of going to five different houses, washing dishes and sweeping floors. I wanted connection, I wanted relationship, I wanted to know people. To sit with them for a whole morning and learn their struggles, stories from their past, what God has done in their lives, the desires of their heart.
Our first house, we fetched water from the well and weeded around the foundation of the house. We were invited into the house for juice by the owner, Monica. We learned she spoke surprisingly good English, had two kids, lived with her parents, and had dreams of becoming a doctor, finding a husband, and moving out of Lesotho. As we continued talking to her, we could sense that her life was anything but simple; she was struggling with some sort of emotional weight on her shoulders. It was robbing her of the joy the Lord wanted her to take ahold of. She was tired.
As the morning passed, we read her scripture, sang worship songs to her, listened to her favorite worship songs, prayed over her, spoke words of encouragement into her life and her dreams. As she began to tell us how thankful and appreciative she was of the time we had spent with her, her face began to crumple and she buried it in her hands to hide her tears, silently crying.
I needed her to know how loved she was. I needed her to know she had an inexhaustible resource of life-giving water; the words written on the pages of her Bible.
“And he took bread gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way after the supper, he took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” Luke 22:19-20
As I read this passage to her, not really sure why the Lord put in on my heart to read this specific one, I recalled a sermon I had heard describing the act of taking the bread and the wine as the Lord’s love letter to us. Maybe this woman needed a love letter.
Think about it. Taking communion is how we remember and give thanks to Jesus for willingly giving his body and shedding his blood for us. I’m not sure about you but I don’t know anyone that would willingly die and spend three days in hell for me. Jesus thought of me when his body was ceasing to draw breath on the cross. He thought of you and he thought of Monica as he hung there dying, and he stayed on that cross because he believed we were worth it. What a love. What a love story! The greatest one ever told in my opinion. When you take the bread and the wine, that’s a love letter written specifically to you.
This amazing love comes alive in the pages of his Word. Read it.
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
The bread of his Word is our spiritual food. Have you been feeding yourself? Read it when you’re empty, read it when you’re weary, read it when you’re happy, read it when you’re tempted, read it when you’re angry, read it when you’re content. Read it when you need reassurance, when you need guidance, when you need to feel something. If you open your heart to it and let the Spirit work, the words will speak directly to you. They will come alive. His Word is our wellspring of life; the bread that can feed an empty soul. Read it. It’s the greatest love story ever told.
If you’re reading this thinking, “there is nothing for me in the Bible, I can’t relate to it, I don’t connect with it,” that’s a lie that’s been planted in you. YOU are a main character of the story. How can you not feel connection?
YOU are the recipient of the greatest love ever given. The actions, behaviors, and motives of everyone and everything in the Bible ultimately lead up to and point to Jesus. Jesus is the main character. And the only reason the main character even showed up in the story is to tell us he loves us, and to prove it by dying. You were his motive. You’re involved in the story. You’re a main character. You already have the love story you’ve always wanted, love letters written to you that can speak directly to your heart. Read it.
As I read to Monica and explained my take on the passage to her, I could only pray that the Lord was using my words to speak directly to her heart and inspire her to see all the ways he tells us he loves us. And I’ll pray the same for you; that you read the greatest love story ever told and know that it was written specifically for you.
