Addition. It’s the simplest math possible: 1 Cheerio + 1 Cheerio = 2 Cheerios. See? Easy peasy. Better yet, trade up to brightly colored, mega sugary, Froot Loops (those beautiful little sugar-encrusted wheels – beautiful yes, but math-precarious, too, as the addends have a tendency to, um, disappear before arriving at a sum). Sometimes, 3 Froot Loops + 3 Froot Loops = 5 Froot Loops.
Another adding game was Monopoly, with its much-coveted houses and hotels! Oh, how fun to keep adding them to ‘your’ properties. Collecting the mounting rents was equally pleasurable. Adding up the pile of ‘your’ money was, I’m sure, the birthing of much greed. In fact, winning at every boardgame increased the joy of victory. I had a favorite uncle who never let us lose. He would do everything in his power to make sure we were the winners, much to my mother’s consternation, as she was certain we needed to know how to lose well – which we accomplished well when playing with her.
We continue to do adding throughout our lives as evidenced by filled-to-overflowing closets, basements, attics, garages (were those ever seriously intended to house cars??) This accumulation is mathed little by little over the years, only exposed for the momentous adding it is when it comes time to move. This, for the uninitiated, is when addition becomes painful – and weighty.
Scripture, too, recommends adding throughout our in-Christ lives. Not material things, though. There’s this funny word, ‘imputed,’ which means a transaction, a transfer, a credit. For example, in Romans 4:13, Paul says righteousness was imputed to Abraham through faith. God did it, deeming Abraham righteousness or choosing to ‘see’ Abraham standing in His (God’s) righteousness. This is God’s ultra-extravagant addition in us, too! In 2 Corinthians 5:21, TPT, Paul writes: “God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.” In other words, God, through Jesus, imputed righteousness to us! Again, in Romans 5:9, he says: “And there is still much more to say of his unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, ‘You are now righteous in my sight.’”
So, from the moment of our new birth (our salvation) until we draw our final breath, we have been given the incredible privilege, and ability, of adding to our ‘imputed righteousness.’ Or we might say it like this: living into our holiness/growing up into the full measure of our holiness/genuinely expressing our worship). All these ‘additions’ are things that open the door for us to experience all that delights God’s heart. And that kind of addition way outranks my much-treasured Froot Loops! PD
