ABUNDANCE
By Amy Schmidt
It’s impossible to be lonely
when you’re zesting an orange.
Scrape the soft rind once
and the whole room
fills with fruit.
Look around: you have
more than enough.
Always have.
You just didn’t notice
until now.
For 6 years we lived in former communist Germany.
The locals talked often of the 40 years of scarcity under communism. Oranges were hard to come by and when they were available it usually involved waiting in a long line around Christmas time.
While many places around the world were able to experience and celebrate God’s extravagant gift of Jesus to the world, our friends in East Germany were experiencing material scarcity. The communist government attempted to suppress any sign of divinity intervening in human spaces.
So they waited in line for oranges.
Or an orange.
A time of scarcity made brighter with a sign of abundance.But what of those of us who are given free reign to celebrate Jesus coming to us?
We, like the older brother in the prodigal tale, have access to abundance, but sit in scarcity. Or it seems like many of us do.I recall a bright summer day when I had a vitamin C hunger and went to the store to pick up an orange. I started peeling it at lunch and a colleague got a whiff. Her head jerked up and she gasped, “You're not eating an orange right now, are you?” I said, “um, yes!”
“That’s far too expensive to eat in the summer!” came the retort.
I felt sorry for my colleague who sat in scarcity while I ate the fruit symbolizing abundance for me.Now, oranges are not really what this is all about. They merely represent some thoughts and some learnings about what God meant by “I have come that you have life and that you have it in abundance.”
Abundance is also not about material possessions.
Goodness, we could stand to live with much less.
This is about recognizing my own inner scarcity.
I am often small-minded when God represents hope.
I withhold my heart where God is wide open with love for all.
I am often afraid to have convictions and freeze, paralyzed until I notice God’s presence with me, I feel that warmth of courage flow through me to live into those convictions.
I want this abundance.
This month, the one where we focus on thanksgiving, I also want to be reminded of abundance to help me to see where I might reach out for the more from God’s heart that is always there for me.
It is more than enough.