The Kingdom in a Cookie

It's really best when it is warmed up in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, dropped soft and warm into a cold bowl, then covered up with vanilla bean ice cream. Finally, put some of Grandma's homemade chocolate sauce over the top. A perfect desert. The Kingdom of God.

Well, okay, not the sundae itself. But I'm not going as far to say that the whole situation isn't a sweet taste of the Kingdom.

I went over to my Grandma's house last night to pick up Gideon. With Courtney out of town, in New York City on business, I've needed help watching Gideon while I attempt to teach the Bible. Gideon spent the day joking with Aunt Becky, telling her that she was "mommy" or "Jonathon," all the while obviously knowing who she was and laughing at her. But in the afternoon he went over to Grandma's house, while Becky headed north into the falling snow to watch her daughter Amy's basketball game.

So, while I suffered through P90X with a smattering of 8th graders for after school fun, my Grandma welcomed a walking mess-maker into her home. He got out all the toys he could find upstairs, and when I got there to pick him up the floor was littered with interlocking blocks, plastic horses, wooden fences, tractors, and Captain Kangaroo was playing on the record player.

My grandma let a two-year old destroy her living room in just over an hour. And then she gave us chocolate-chip cookies.

In the Lukan version of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus builds the Kingdom on the image of a merciful and giving Father. The Father is inviting his family to act as he does, and the way that he acts is extravagant. When he gives to others, he packs their bags full of goodness, shakes them around, makes more room, packs some more in and then lets some run out over the sides. There is no thought of holding back.

That's what my grandma did. There was no thought of holding back. She even invited us over for dinner after giving us the cookies to take home. I was really grateful. But it led me to another thought about God...

The other part of the merciful Father? He doesn't give just to "his family." Jesus specifically notes that the Father extends mercy to the "ungrateful and the wicked." Those who operate in the realms of indifference and opposition. And this is the Father we are supposed to be like?

Simply, yes. I am suppose to act toward my enemies as my grandma acted towards me. So, I guess I'd better get the recipe for those cookies.