God’s Show and Tell

Treasured Friends,

As always, I’m eager to gather with you this Sunday at our Lord’s Table, as we share together His gift of Holy Communion.

You’ve heard me before refer to the sacraments – especially Communion – as “God’s Show and Tell.” What God tells us in His written Word – in Scripture – He shows us visibly in the sacraments – in Baptism and Communion. It is His show and tell…for us. Just as a young child tells her class about a summer vacation to the beach, that story becomes instantly more intriguing when she excitedly shows her classmates a shell or a piece of driftwood she brought back from her journey.

Beloved in Christ, when Jesus says, “This is My body and blood, broken and poured out for you,” He means it. We don’t need to get caught up in the questions of “why” and “how” that’s possible – the mechanics of the thing – anymore than that little girl and her class cares how her shell first made it to the beach. They’re just fascinated to see and hold and touch the shell. In other words, it’s the thing itself that matters; and in the case of the sacraments, it’s the promises, gifts, and blessings that God tells us He’s giving us through water, bread, and wine.

These gifts are yours, He’s saying and showing, so that just as surely as you touch them, see them, smell them, and taste them, you can also know that I am yours. Just as surely as the minister hands you this bread and cup, God is saying through these visible signs, I’m handing you Myself. I and everything I’ve ever done, and everything I have to give. It’s all yours, and it’s all just as real as this bread you hold and this cup you drink!

O, taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). Come taste and see so that you’ll know and never doubt that He is God, and He is for you!

On the journey with you,

Mike