PEACH COBBLER AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

If you listen to me preach often, occasionally you have to hear me talk about the ‘good old days’

This morning I’ll tell you a little about the good old days when I was a college age boy.

I went to a college in the Midwest.

I went there when I was 17 and was not there long before I had a serious bout with  homesickness.

I went to that school for 4 years and never really got over it.

Well, 3 or 4 times a year I would make my way home to Richardson, Texas and you talk about feeling good.

I would see my old buddies and we would put the music on real loud and go out at night.

I’d go up to my old high school and see my basketball coach and we would shoot baskets together. I had great respect for him and still do.

But what I loved the most about going home was spending time with my Mom and Dad. They were so dear to me.

And I guess of all the things I remember most with them was sitting with them at the dinner table.

Dad was a talker and he would talk my head off.

And Mom would always make all the dishes I wanted…enchiladas,  southern fried chicken,  vegetables cooked with ham, creamy mashed potatoes, fried okra,  salmon croquettes, banana pudding, homemade chocolate cream pie and peach cobbler made with fresh peaches.

Lord, I loved those meals.

But what I loved the most was something else.

How to describe it?

It was something intangible which was so freely given.

It was an unconditional love and acceptance.

It had nothing to do with whether I had good grades or bad grades. (I had my share of both)

It had nothing to do with the frequency or lack of frequency of my letters.

It had nothing to do with how I looked or didn’t look.

I didn’t have to work for what they gave me.

Didn’t have to audition or compete for it.

Didn’t have to do one thing but just be there, unshaved in an old tee shirt cut off jeans and barefoot.

6 feet three inches tall and still just a little boy on the inside.

When I sat at my Mom and Dad’s table, along with the unforgettable food, I was served something far more wonderful…unconditional love.

And also, unconditional forgiveness.

And Lord how I needed it.

I had been thoughtless towards those dear people so many times.

I had been so insensitive.

I’m sure I hurt them deeply from time to time

But whenever I sat at their table, unconditional forgiveness was served to me right along with the croquettes and cobbler.

If you ever experienced the kind of unconditionalness that I’ve just talked about…or maybe you didn’t but needed it greatly…maybe you can relate to how the disciples felt when they broke bread and drank wine or ate fish with Christ.

Now when they ate with him no magic occurred.

Where they were eating didn’t become strangely bright and glowing.

Heavenly choruses didn’t provide background music.

It didn’t thunder and lightning bolts didn’t flash so the disciples walked out from Jesus ready to take on the principalities and powers of this world.

But when the disciples broke bread with Jesus they experienced possibly the most powerful thing in the universe.

They experienced divine, unconditional love and forgiveness.