Crowded Buses:
So the other day, we started this thing as a team where one or two afternoons a week, we have a team of “open worship” where a teammate leads us in a different way of worship. Wednesday, Sister Sam was up and we did this thing called “Practicing Personal Parables.”
Basically, she handed each of us a piece of paper with a scenario written on it that applies to life here-like mangos falling out of the tree or the multitude of gnats that showed up last week. We then had 30-ish minutes to come up with a way that we see God in that situation. It was so creative and really fun to see what everyone came up with. Austin and Erica literally wrote parables. Some people wrote multiple pages. I drew a picture.
Mine said “The Crowded Bus” and if you’ve ever been to Latin America, you know how crazy the buses are around here.
I immediately thought of last weekend when we were headed to Ojo de Agua, this really sweet, cold fresh water springs on the other side of the island. Swimming in Lake Nica is comparable to swimming in a bowl of soup, so we were all supes excited to go swimming somewhere deep and cold! There were about 12 of us and we waited eagerly at the bus stop for nearly an hour on the bus.
When it finally showed up, we were pretty sure it wasn’t going to hold us. It look absolutely packed. We started to walk back to the bus stop to wait for the next bus when the bus boss said that there was plenty of room for us. We were a little unsure at first, but bus boss knew best and we got on, so excited to head toward our sweet oasis for the day. We even stopped at several more bus stops along the way and picked up even more friends headed to various destinations!
I think Jesus is like the bus boss sometimes.
Sometimes we feel like we spend forever waiting for him to show up or working up the courage to ask for forgiveness but feel like there won’t be enough for us or that he won’t show up.
We feel like His grace is limited.
That His forgiveness isn’t sufficient.
That his bus is full and there’s no room for one more.
But that’s just not true.
His grace is sufficient.
His sacrifice covered ALL sin.
Past. Present. Future.
Oh His bus, there’s always room for more.
More love.
More grace.
More brothers and sisters.
Even more nutty, & sometimes stinky, gringos like me.
“Therefore He is able to save COMPLETELY those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”
Hebrews 7:25
