Why are there so many great food commercials on TV around dinner time? You don’t have to answer that! Last night one restaurant was talking about unlimited appetizers for a single price. You get something like 8 of one item. When you finish them, you can order 8 more of another (or the same one). I am not sure if the price is per appetizer, or per person at your table. If I went there, I think I would either be too cheap to order one, or quite quickly become a glutton.
Then, not too much later, on the same evening, another place tells me they have unlimited fries with every order. They feature “fat” fries (I am sure they have a more creative name for them), and the ad displayed basket after basket being delivered to different tables. If I went there, I would probably be inclined to finish at least three baskets – even though I am not a fan of fat fries!
On the radio I have been noticing DJ’s saying things like, “I’ll be back in 90 seconds (more often, 2 minutes).” However, if the consecutive commercials are going to last more than two minutes, they tell me what time the program will return. I don’t know about you, but even before the two-minute mark I am starting to think that the commercial time is “unlimited.”
I would prefer the limits be removed from the number of consecutive sunny days we experience – lately it has seemed more like the clouds are unlimited. I am anticipating that there will be no limits on how many times I can return to the buffet line one week from today … though someday I should tell you about a “big family dinner” from many years ago where my mother baked 6 rolls for the 8 of us (and we were whispering to each other “FHB” as the other items were passed around). The number of times since then that we have told that story – and laughed – is truly unlimited.
Yet, we know, that all these experiences actually are limited. They are limited by time … or supplies … by others or by us. My mother is no longer around to laugh with us about her cooking (or lack thereof). And the restaurants with unlimited seconds end up closing at some point. Even a 30-pound turkey will not last forever.
The only place where we will not find limits is in the spiritual realm … when we are talking about the gracious blessings bestowed upon us by the One True God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Paul says it this way, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1.3) Jesus describes things another way, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11.25-26) Unlimited are the blessings … unlimited is the life … we are given in Jesus.
I find it interesting that Jesus weeps just a few minutes after he has described himself as the resurrection and the life … he is even still with the same people. Perhaps he does so to illustrate the fact that our tears are limited (even though this may be difficult to believe at times), while our life with Jesus is not (perhaps even more difficult to believe). The promise is clear: “(God) will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21.4)
That’s the kind of unlimited that is so great that it is beyond my imagination … yet it is all ours in Christ Jesus!