I’ve heard it said that people can be eating from the same banquet table and be seeing different food. That makes me wonder about “abundance” and how we each see and interpret it in our lives through our own individual lenses or filters of experience. What do you see in the photo? Do you see an abundance of withheld treasure of tiny pumpkins? Maybe you see an abundance of dry, brown, lifeless straw as the backdrop of those withheld treasured objects? Perhaps you see a child who has wandered away from the thriving, approved path among throngs of people and pumpkin patch activities to a secluded, scarce place behind the scene? Perspective can alter our outlook on life as well as our ability to receive the goodness that is available to us. Maintaining clear lenses and observing with childlike faith can impart an understanding that comes from enlightened vision carrying the hope of a high calling, the riches of being a glorious inheritance to our Creator, and a belief that we will be witness to the working of His exceedingly great power on our behalf regardless of what our natural eyes may see all around us.
God is not a God of scarcity, but of abundance! We have not yet seen, nor heard, nor imagined the good things that He has prepared for us who love Him. They are revealed to us, not by our natural eyesight or understanding, but through faith in His goodness towards us who believe Him. It is by His Holy Spirit that we can know the things that have been freely given to us by God. We can allow the child within to be led by the Spirit of the Living God to come aside with Him and catch glimpses of what He has in store for us behind the scenes of life.
Look again at the picture with a new perspective, clear lenses, and childlike faith. Do you see an abundance of tiny pumpkin treasures that are awaiting unpacking and staging? Maybe you see an abundance of carefully bundled and strategically scattered dry, brown straw that will provide the right conditions for prolonging the viability of the pumpkins? And most importantly, do you see an abundance of beauty, inquisitiveness, life, and raw potential in the precious personhood of Divine Design that has yet to reach maturity? I choose to lay aside my jaded adult perspective on life and allow the child within to see, hear, imagine and follow Him…believing in His goodness toward me and receiving of His abundance.
“YOU CROWN THE YEAR WITH YOUR GOODNESS, AND YOUR PATHS DRIP WITH ABUNDANCE.” (Psalm 65:11)
