Slices & Slivers

Slices. We all have our slices in various pies and cakes and any of the other obvious metaphors for life, or gifting, or mission. Slices and slivers all piecing together this one hodgepodge of a pie, the sampler platter. I've always thought of this pie as just one flavor, all of us owning our bits but, in the end, offering pretty much the same things. I always guessed that this picture held up if I was thinking about God as the One Holy Pie. But I'm beginning to think even that's weak at best.

I'm beginning to think that this whole, pristine God-pie doesn't have clean slices and a uniform crumb. I don't think He's one flavor meant to be divvied out in varying portions.

I'm beginning to think He's much more messy and interesting.

What if God let's us come to the pie with forks, spoons, fingers even? And what if it works more like Mary Poppins' medicine bottle, pouring different flavors for each person? No palette experiences God in the same way, and that's beauty unexplained, One Holy God-pie served in ever-expanding flavors.

So what if it's a God-of-many-colors pie thrown out on a big farmhouse table with the ring of a dinner bell and a scattering of mismatched silverware? The Holy Spirit says "DIG IN!" and we do. And there's my taste of God. My bite. My sliver. My slice, if I'm feeling proper. And I'm jammed in there with the rest, elbows and arms, laughter and shouting.

It's God, family style. And it's beautiful.

So we are, all of us slices and slivers, bits and pieces, messy and interesting little God-bearers. We wipe our mouths with our shirt sleeves and reach for the milk, all slopped around the table as different from one another as possible and enjoying every bit of it.

What if it's possible for us to sit around that table and actually enjoy it? Can we dislike a flavor without leaving the table? Is it truly possible for us to be there with all our pieces and just enjoy that we all have pieces?

That would be beautiful.