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Gathering
27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. John 20:27 KJV
The season of Easter baskets will soon arrive. It seems baskets are pretty symbolic things.
As children, we clutched our baskets and ran over the grass to be the first to find the bright eggs and candy.
Admittedly, everything else was overlooked as we grabbed at the treasures for our baskets.
The Old Legend
The image brings to mind an old legend.
In the tale, as I first heard it, a king sends out two of his subjects to scour his kingdom.
One man is to bring back only samples of all the flowers in the kingdom, and the other man is to bring back only samples of all the briars and thorns.
After three years, the two men return to their king.
Both have full baskets and torn hands.
The king asks the man with the basket of thorns if there are any flowers in the kingdom.
He gruffly replies that his hands were torn and cut and that he was sent to gather thorns. How would he know about the flowers?
The king then asks the man with the flowers if there are any thorns in his kingdom, and the man says he never saw the thorns and joyfully shows the flowers.
Then the king remarks that the man’s hands are also cut and bleeding; surely he remembers the thorns, but the man just smiles and shows the king the beautiful abundance and variety of flowers in his kingdom.
Both baskets were full. Both journeys were over.
Our Journey
Equally, as we approach Easter on our journey and with our baskets of life, we are gathering too.
Likewise, it would seem we only have time and room enough to gather some of life’s memories in our baskets.
What will you keep?
Will you stoop to pick up and store and hoard and keep all the things that were said to hurt you?
Will we keep all the cruel remarks, the unfair happenings, and the worst memories?
Instead, with our King’s help, will we let them lie in the grass and walk on?
With God’s help, may you pick up and cherish and treasure the good times, the kind words, the happy memories, and the best your life was. Will you keep those treasures to put in your basket?
Life is Short
Life is short. Our baskets are small.
Time is precious.
Pray, we learn to keep that which will heal and promote love. Pray, we leave in the dust that which will only hurt if kept.
Jesus
Jesus, whose hands were torn too, will help you hold your basket and will help you gather well.