Bonus: A Story in Two Parts

Part One

Bonus Peaches

I live in an agricultural city, known especially for its amazing fruit harvest.  Summer is like Fruit Disneyland, with a new star of the parade in season every couple of weeks.  Last week, we bought some beautiful peaches at the farmer’s market.  Blush colored and fuzzy, we were excited to eat them for dessert that night.  As I paid, the vendor added another peach to my bag.  I looked at her questioningly and she smiled, “We round up here.  Enjoy your peaches!”

When I pray for people, I like to speak Ephesians 3:20 & 21 for their needs.  I love the idea that God goes above and beyond what we think is possible.  Like an extra sweet peach, He rounds up.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

Today, I was wondering if I use this verse too often or out of context.  Because sometimes, life doesn’t feel better than we imagine.  Sometimes it feels way worse. 

The preceding verses are all about understanding the magnitude of God’s love. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

That’s like holding out my reusable cloth grocery bag and having the vendor back up a dozen overflowing truckloads of fresh, glorious peaches.  I’d be buried up to my neck in all the bonus fruit.

God does more than we ask or imagine and He is more than we ask or imagine.

Part Two

Bonus People

This in honor of my Bonus Grandma, Phyllis Blum.

When God chose to love me,

He gathered up all of His love in a giant pitcher.

One at a time, He poured love into my family’s tea cup hearts,

To my Dad,

To my Mom,

Brothers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles:

“Here is my love for Brooke.

Will you give it to her?”

But God’s love was so big,

So very, very full,

It spilled over my family’s brims,

And kept flowing.

Not One to waste anything,

God had special people also bring their cups

To catch all the love.

Bonus people give more than I ever expected.

Phyllis was my Grandma Jane’s best friend.  She not only knew me since birth, but she knew my mom from birth.  When my mom was a little girl, her parents bought a piece of land on Port Ludlow Bay with Phyllis and her husband Bill.  They built cabins, one of which later turned into Phyllis and Bill’s permanent home.  I grew up running back and forth between my grandparents’ cabin and Phyllis and Bill’s house, just steps away.  Our families are not connected by blood, but rather by this bonus love of God.  

Phyllis, my bonus grandma, passed away this morning.  I didn’t deserve or ask for the extra love in my life, but I certainly cherished it.  I cherished her.

I have bonus aunts, uncles and cousins connected to Phyllis.  The love doesn’t ever stop spilling over.  My friends’ children are like nieces and nephews to me.  One friend’s son even calls me “Aunt Brooke” and our other friend “Aunt Stephanie”– a treasure to our hearts.  Because even with all of his blood relatives who love him, God’s love is too big for this young man’s family to contain.   God let it spill over so I could be a bonus auntie.  I’ve received God’s overflow and I get to give it too.

Peach photo credit