Little spaces...Big God

There really isn't a corner for it.  There isn't even an empty wall.  Every inch of space is being used...and being used well I might add.  It's pretty much an eyesore with the orange bucket around it to keep it from falling over.  It should probably be trimmed, but who has time for that? I can barely sweep the floor let alone trim a tree that doesn't necessarily belong in my house.  We all love it though.  Instead of calling it the Lenten Tree we've been calling it the Lenten Forest.  Julia and Caroline sat under it while I read Proverbs this morning.  It really doesn't fit, but I think that's the point.  We make room for practically everything don't we?  Think of Christmas.  How many of us completely rearrange our living room to make room for a tree?  A tree?  In the middle of our house, dangling with a bunch of Hallmark ornaments that have little or nothing to do with Jesus.  We completely restrung our tree this year because of a goofy string of lights (and because I wanted white NON LED lights to twinkle instead...Mike is a saint!).  We moved a chair, we made room because we love Christmas, because we love the God of Christmas.  I think America loves Christmas.  Well, at least the "Holidays".  Target starts hanging neon balls from it's ceiling well before Thanksgiving and I think we all start humming our favorite Christmas tunes long before December.  Then there's that other holiday that makes Christmas make sense.  What's it called again?  Um, there's a rabbit (for some reason) eggs (I have read a book on why that is) and there's something about a, um...an empty room...no AN EMPTY TOMB!  The greatest news.  The fact that Jesus was born is certainly worth a celebration...worth giving our lives to, but I have to say if He didn't follow through we'd all be in a mighty fine mess.  Christmas started it.  It was the 33 years of perfection and then the obedience unto death that sealed the deal.  He finished what He started and because of that we walk in the freedom that His obedience has afforded us.  So, the Lenten Forest that is making itself at home in my "dining room" is here to stay.  As we hang our paper ornaments on it's sparse branches it will remind us all that Jesus is always bigger than the space we try to cram Him into.  He's never going to fit nicely and be something neat enough to "pin."  He's big and bold and far surpasses anything that we could ever imagine.  So, if you don't celebrate the Lenten Season, that is certainly alright.  But may I please ask you to consider preparing your heart for that glorious celebration that sneaks up on us all?  Maybe you don't want a Lenten Forest...but you might just like it.  I run into it when I'm turning the corner and we have to find our way around it when we are trying to get to our Bible.  Isn't that it?  Isn't that the picture?  That Christ would be such a part of our life that no one would be able to move around us without bumping into Him.  That all of our spaces would be filled with reminders that He is alive and so are we!  That there are those who don't know and as we meditate on His grace our arms would stretch to the dark corners and that we would become a Lenten Forest as we follow Him.  Our limbs heavy with good news and reminders of the plan that always was.  That we would be unavoidable and bigger than any space...only because of Him.  Only ever and always because of Him.