It’s pizza night!
Generally speaking, it’s considered normal to first stretch the pizza dough, then place it on an oiled pan. Usually sauce, followed by cheese, is mounted on top, and various delectable toppings are added. One typically follows this procedure with a quick pass to the hot oven, carefully sliding the pizza onto the rack, and baking until it’s bubbly and irresistible.
*squeaky record noise*
I wish you could have seen what happened on a recent Friday night, after the usual first steps. The part when I’m supposed to place the pepperoni pizza gently into the oven. The pepperoni pizza which my 13 year-old son proudly crafted. I gripped the corner – just a little too close to the corner – turned to pop it in the oven – and watched it flip over as it went –
BANG!
– on its face, meat, cheese, and sauce splatting with a sizzle in the preheated oven, sliding mercilessly down through the crack into the storage drawer below.
“What was THAT?!” Jon called out. He’d been watching TV in the living room with our sons, relaxing after a hard week at work. This is The Moment. Will he…
a) Stress out because his wife wasted an entire pizza, dashed the teenager’s hopes and dreams, and created a miserable mess to commemorate the start of the weekend? Or
b) Be gracious?
Jon responded with the grace of Jesus. He shrugged it off, gave me space to fix the problem, and kept the young, hungry males happy until supper was ready. If he’d been angry, his wife would have been a miserable mess, too. By the Spirit’s help in both of us, Jon’s care enabled me to say to the boys, “What Daddy just did is an example of God’s unfailing love. I made a huge mistake, and he didn’t get mad about it.”
Psalm 31:7 “I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.” God has seen my upside down pizza many times. I love that He doesn’t criticize me for the mess. Instead, He cares about the knots I’m tied up in on the inside. He carried the miserable mess of my sin in the body of Jesus, on the cross. He fixed the problem. And the Risen King comforts me with patience and grace that I can hardly believe exist.
When you respond graciously to Mess, it speaks more loudly than you realize. And please remember that the Lord cares when your soul is anguished over problems much bigger than squandered pizza. Jon and I have had our share of botched opportunities for showing grace. But the Lord’s grace and love are always pouring out on us, and on you. “His mercies are new every morning…” Lamentations 3:23 “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.” Psalm 23:6
