Different but the same…
One of my daily pleasures is observing the activity around the fireworks bushes outside my kitchen window. For some reason, this season has encouraged an explosion of growth, and the flowers are so plentiful and gloriously red that they are an irresistible invitation to every bee, butterfly and hummingbird cruising around our garden – and wasps! Hummingbirds and butterflies are designed to reach the nectar in those slender trumpet shapes, but I wondered about the bees. How on earth could they get the divine drink? I laughed outright when I saw a bee land on the lip of a drooping blossom and then bury its fuzzy head in the nectar as it ran out. And wasps are quite capable of drilling a little hole at the base of the flower, a shortcut to the nectar, I presume. The nectar is the same, but the hungry differ.
It doesn’t take much to turn this into a perfect metaphor for me today, a vivid picture of something I have observed countless times over the years of ministering around the world. The richness of the Word of God is a never-ending source of delight, but I have often been truly surprised by the very different ways it can feed the spirits of people in the same gathering. The apostle Peter recognized this quality of the Word: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the MANIFOLD GRACE of God.” The word ‘manifold’ used here means varied, diverse, of various kinds, multi-faceted even. And the writer to the Hebrews says it like this: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
This is the miracle of God’s saving grace upon his Word. It is not our eloquence that changes lives. No! The Holy Spirit takes the words we preach, speak, sing and write, breathes the very life of God into them, and makes them accessible to the needs of every heart present.
In fact, now that I think about it, I think it’s true to say I can on occasion be a butterfly, hummingbird, bee or sometimes even a wasp. But the sweet nectar of the manifold grace of God is always available to me….
