We might call them Johnny-on-the-spot or say that they always give 150% to a task. We might say they can be always be counted on, always the first to show up and the last to leave, if they say they’ll do something, you can be sure it will get done and done well. If there’s a need, call (you fill in the blank). We really like these people. They’re ‘true blue.’ They’re the ‘cream of the crop.’ They’re ‘all in.’ We wish there were more of them. Their dedication is such an inspiration! In manifesting characteristics like these, they’re a picture of our Heavenly Father.
I’ve been thinking about these incredible individuals and the word connecting them with God is ‘all.’ It keeps ringing in my ears. It speaks of fullness, of completeness, of unerringness, of perfection. That’s God! He is (all) faithful and (all) true, (all) awesome/brilliant, (all) love, (all) peace, (all) comfort, (all) forgiveness, (all) mercy – are you getting the picture? (I could continue!). There is no halfway measure in God! He has not even one inconsistency. And to think he chooses us! (unworthiness comes into focus here). The picture I get is a memorial that has an eternal flame, one that is never extinguished, and always guarded. The frailty of this image, the difference, is of course, that it could be put out, whereas God’s flame can never be snuffed out.
In pondering a bit further, I’m filled with a sense of His majesty, that the God of the Universe, its Creator and mine, throws His ‘all’ at my every prayer, my every problem, every snag that is irksome in my little life, my little self, every little ‘ouchie’ that afflicts my little, though sometimes foolishly inflated, ego. Think of His ‘Omnis’ (which mean ‘all’)– omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent. We are extravagantly, excessively inundated by these dynamic qualities, these most beautiful of gifts. I think of Jesus asking his disciples if they don’t think they are of more worth than the sparrow whose falling to the ground is noticed by his Father. The ‘alls’ of God just keep going! And in His Divinity, His ‘alls’ are undiminished by the number of His children, the number of requests and needs and pains and sorrows and tragedies and . . . He is the God Who Sees. You know, I feel better already, having written these few words! And I’ll never look at that little, three-letter word the same way again. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.