A Full Meal
Ruth 2:14
Whenever we are privileged to eat the bread that Jesus gives, we are,
like Ruth, satisfied with a full and sweet provision. When Jesus is the
host, no guest goes empty from the table. Our head is satisfied with the precious truth that Christ reveals; our heart
is content with Jesus as the altogether lovely object of affection; our
hope is satisfied, for who do we have in heaven but Jesus? And our
desire is fulfilled, for what more can we wish for than to "gain Christ
and be found in him"?1 Jesus fills our conscience until it is at perfect peace, our judgment with persuasion of the certainty of His teachings, our memory with recollections of what He has done, and our imagination with the prospects of what He is still to do.
As Ruth was "satisfied," so is it with us. We have drunk deeply; we
have thought that we could take in all of Christ; but when we have done
our best, we have had to leave a vast remainder. We have sat at the
table of the Lord's love and said, "Nothing but the infinite can ever
satisfy me; I am such a great sinner that I must have infinite merit to
wash my sin away." But we have had our sin removed and found that there
was merit to spare; we have had our hunger relieved at the feast of
sacred love and found that there was an abundance of spiritual food
remaining. There are certain sweet things in the Word of God that we
have not enjoyed yet, and that we are obliged to leave for a while; for
we are like the disciples to whom Jesus said, "I still have many things
to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."2
Yes, there are graces to which we have not attained, places of
fellowship nearer to Christ that we have not reached, and heights of
communion that our feet have not climbed. At every banquet of love there
are many baskets left.
1) Philippians 3:9
2) John 16:12
