Serving Jesus

Matthew 25:31-40 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” Yesterday evening I was priveleged to be able to serve many of our church leaders at a special dinner we had for them. It was already arranged, and our wonderful church secretary/do-everything-lady had planned out the night splendidly. All that myself and several other youth (including my cool brother, Ben) had to do was serve the food and make sure that everything went smoothly...and then of course, clean up afterwards. It went great, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Then Mr. Snapp (our pastor) gathered everyone together at the end and recounted to us God's amazing ways that had brought everyone who was there to the same church. To think that we could have never even met all of the wonderful friends that we have now...but God. Then Mr. Snapp prayed to close the meeting. But one phrase that he said got caught in my mind, and I think that God spoke to me right there, in the middle of the prayer - and after the prayer was over, I grabbed a paper-towel and a pen and wrote what I felt down. This is the phrase that Mr. Snapp used: "Jesus, you are the guest-of-honor." Simple, right? And then I thought of that night, and many other times when I have served - especially those times when I felt that what I was doing was so insignificant. And those 7 words merged with the pictures I had in my mind of serving the people at "my table" (Table 3 - hehe) that night...and another picture came to my mind - of Jesus sitting at the head of the table, right next to Mr. Rawleigh. Every time I smiled at the "guests", I was really smiling at Jesus. When I was striving to do my best to bless them, I was really blessing Jesus. That was an awesome thought - and ever so encouraging! Until...until I think of all of those times when I served, yes, but I served with a bad attitude, or those times I could have served, but didn't "feel like it"...or ignored the need because of selfishness...especially in my very own home, with the people that are nearest to me. Those times when I sighed all through my "duty", or stomped away because I didn't want to do what was asked of me...and now I can see that Jesus was right there...watching me in my bad attitude - probably with tears in his eyes. So, the long and short of this post is to say, I guess, that it might be helpful to remember that Jesus is there...when we are serving with joy and humbleness...or when our mom asks us to dust and we refuse - we are really refusing to bless 2 people: God and our mother. (And we are sneering at any blessing that God may have bestowed upon us.) When we least expect it - we are serving Jesus.