Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.  “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

• Mark 14:22-26

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

• Titus 2:11-14

When my wife had a little accident today (as of the day writing this), she had no idea that she would spark an inspiration for another thought about Jesus.  That and a lot of back pain and sore knees, but she is okay.  That’s the important thing.

She had made some delicious pork ribs in the slow cooker a couple of days ago.  She used red wine and a lot of spices.  Thinking of that, I may have leftovers for lunch.  Yummmmm.  The problem is that she did not put the bottle of wine away. 

I cleaned the slow cooker with no incident, but I am one of those who prefers to leave things in the drying rack, except I always put the slow cooker back together – the crock and lid are too heavy for the drying rack.  But for the rest of the clean dishes, we are just going to use the same things again, and we will know where they are.  Right!?!  My wife thinks that we should hide the clean dishes.  Our kitchen cabinet area is so small compared to what we need that it becomes hiding rather than putting it in its place – just not enough places.  I wonder if my aversion to putting the clean dishes up relates to not wanting to make the bed?  It is the same excuse.  But I digress in the story.

She was putting away drink glasses in the cabinet behind the slow cooker and her sleeve snagged the cork of the bottle of wine.  The wine must have thought that it was too heavy because it landed on our ‘bathroom’ scales and shattered.  (Both bathrooms are carpeted, so we have the scales in the kitchen.) In the photo and next to the unbroken extra bottle of wine, you can see the label of the broken bottle, which held about fifty shards of glass together, making a little of the cleanup easier.

I was downstairs in the basement, doing laundry.  For another rabbit hole sidetrack, she is the one who lives out of the laundry basket while I put my clothing away.  Strange!!  Back to the story, she screams; I go hobbling.  I am in my upper 60s; I cannot characterize it as running.

I have her sit down, away from the advancing red puddle.  She has been a diabetic since a day or two of her 40^th birthday.  The podiatrist is very concerned that she could get a cut on her foot, not notice, and lose a foot due to gangrene.  To not waste the nice kitchen towels that we just bought, I mopped the glass shards and wine with paper towels, but, due to bending over, my back started hurting – the phrase is “killing me!!!”  I got down on my hands and knees to finish the job.  At least I could support my upper body with one arm while mopping with the other.  In shifting my weight, I thought I was placing my hand on clean floor, but a tiny shard imbedded into my hand.  A little later, the same thing happened to my other hand.  I was not too worried about cleaning the wounds.  I was mopping up wine by hand.  The alcohol would probably clean the wound.  Right!?!

Then as blood continued to drip onto the floor as I continued to mop wine, I noticed how the red wine and the blood mixed.  My heart seemed to skip a beat.  I thought of our Savior’s death.  How He shed His blood so that we could share eternal life with Him in Heaven.

I ended up cleaning the floor in the reverse logical order.  Everyone knows that you sweep first and then mop, to prevent trying to mop mud.  I mopped.  I dried.  I then vacuumed the floor, and I picked up glass in each step.  It is amazing how far tiny shards of a wine bottle can fly when the bottle breaks.

And it is amazing how we can all, that is all who believe in Jesus, enjoy salvation through His shedding of blood.  The sacrifice is paid in full.

As you eat the bread and drink the wine (or juice) the next time you take communion, think of it as your own blood that was NOT shed, because Jesus paid the penalty for your sin.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.