The Holy Scriptures suggests that every follower of Messiah is given at least one spiritual gift for the purpose of building up The Body of Christ as well as to serve the corporate body. While many followers may contend that such gifts are given for their own benefit, the central function of these gifts are to enrich and serve others.
The translation of the passage 1 Peter 4:8-10 in The Message Bible states, “Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless-cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you.”
Such an example of Biblical hospitality is captured by a letter from Kay Bredder. Kay is a volunteer at Gwinnett Medical Center in Duluth, GA. She works with the Endoscopy team providing valuable care and service for our patients and the staff professions. She share this story to me one day, and I was so impressed by it’s content and spiritual implication, I encouraged her to sent me a copy of it so that I could write a blog. The following is her story.
God is in the Details
We had family visiting from out of town and invited some friends over for an Italian dinner. The number of people kept increasing until we reached 15. I cook just for myself so when you hear 15 people, I thought I was feeding an army! I had made two lasagnas and tiramisu for dessert. One guest was buying a birthday cake for her husband’s birthday. My daughter told her I was making dessert so she decided to bring a salad. With 15 people I thought we needed another dessert and made a cake, Vermont Spice Cake with maple cream cheese icing to celebrate his birthday. Seemed a good choice for an October birthday.
When it came time for dessert, we all sang Happy Birthday, to the “Birthday Boy”, while he blew out his candles and was served the first piece of cake. He asked what kind it was. I answered, Vermont Spice Cake. He said his mother always made him a spice cake for his birthday. He said this one tasted exacted like the one his mother always made. Then after they left, I was told his mother passed away two months ago.
How great is the love of the Father that he would arrange all the circumstances to have his spice cake on his birthday.
Grace and Peace