“Jesus, give me your abundant life.”
This summer, my husband, my 18-month-old son and I went on a road trip to visit my family. Now, it’s not a crazy long drive - about 10 hours each way. And usually I find being with family very relaxing and peaceful. However, this was the first time that we had made the trip with a toddler. On top of that, in my current pregnancy, I have struggled with high levels of fatigue due to an iron deficiency. This, along with a very busy little boy, made the trip more exhausting than I had originally thought.
One morning, I was sitting and trying to pray in my parent’s living room, while also fighting feelings of deep despair regarding how tired I felt. My blessed husband was chasing the toddler outside, and there was nothing for me to do but sit, yet I was still just having a hard time feeling joy. John 10:10 was the Gospel reading that day, where Jesus assures his disciples: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” I was reflecting and wrestling with what “abundant life” could possibly look like in this season of exhaustion. As with many prayer times, I didn’t leave with any big revelations, just continuing thoughts and an ongoing cry of: “Jesus, give me your abundant life, because I am feeling anything but abundant life.”
Later that day, my husband and I decided to go out to a local cherry u-pick that was at the end of the season. Free cherries = easy sell for me. I waddled out to the back orchard, feeling tired and hot, looking for a good place to pick. Most of the trees looked pretty picked over. Until, all of a sudden we were surrounded by a sea of red. Right at the back of the orchard were rows upon rows of untouched trees, drooping with the most beautiful, ripe cherries. I suddenly felt gleeful. We had brought only two ice-cream pails, which we filled in less than thirty minutes. My husband went to get the car. I sat down on the ground, next to a particularly bountiful branch and just pulled cherries off by the handful. The pails being full, I had to resort to using the bottom of my shirt as a makeshift bag to hold as many cherries as I could! In that moment, Jesus spoke to my heart, saying “this is like the abundant life I have for you.”
There was more than I could ever harvest. Our buckets were woefully insufficient for what was being given to us. It was more than I could ever need. It didn’t matter that I was sweaty, pregnant, and tired - I was pulled into the mystery and goodness of abundant cherries life.
I sat on the ground, giggling and feeling totally overwhelmed by the goodness of God. When my husband returned, he laughed at me as I emptied my shirt and pockets into the back of the car. There was no way I wanted to leave behind any more of those cherries than I absolutely had to.
I’ve been invited to ponder this image and gift of abundant life over the past few months since our trip. It has become clear to me that the abundant life that Jesus offers is not dependent on our circumstances. It is not the promise of an easy life, but rather that we will be able to enter into experiences of grace and joy that go beyond our external circumstances.
Abundant life is unexpected. It is not something we can calculate, or store away for a later moment, but is simply God breaking into our here and now.
I am reminded of this often during moments with my toddler. There really is no better example of abundant, buzzing, thriving life than in the actions and energy of a one and a half year old. I can be wildly tired, grumpy, hungry - you name it- and yet the simple moment where he tries to say a new word will make me forget all of that. If I truly allow myself to open up to it, abundant life is all around me, no matter what I am going through.
How do I open my heart to abundant life?
Only through prayer: “Jesus, give me your abundant life.”
I can work on my mindset, but it really comes down to grace. Just like those cherries were a gift beyond my control (or imagination), the abundant life that Jesus offers to us is not something we earn through positive thinking or setting up our lives in a way that is free from stress or worry.
The following scripture passage came to my attention recently as I was praying the liturgy of the hours one evening, inviting me to look again at what abundant life is and isn’t.
Many say, “May we see better times!
Lord, show us the light of your face!”
But you have given my heart more joy
than they have when grain and wine abound.Psalm 4:6-7
So often we think that if life’s difficulties simply disappeared, we would then be able to enter into joy. We beg God: “show us your face by giving us better times!”
But then the psalmist says that he has been given more joy in the present moment than other people have when they have abounding material provisions.
Abundant life is pure gift.
It is easy to attach expectations to prayers, even unknowingly.
How often have I thought “I can only be at peace and have joy if I get the rest I think I need.” Or, “I will only experience life fully once I am past this season of pregnancy.”
But that is not really how God works. He breaks into whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, and offers us his abundant life — a gift for this very moment in time.
And when that happens, I want to sit down and stuff my face just like I did with those blessed cherries.
Things I’ve enjoyed this week:
This article by
on Food and the Feminine Genius was insightful and made me ponder the gift of being a woman:“Whether a woman has ten children or none at all, there is something about food and the feminine that is inextricably linked. Not simply because women generally (but certainly not always) do more cooking than men in the home, but more because women can do something men can’t. We can become food. It’s a woman’s blood that nourishes the child in her womb. It’s her milk that nourishes her child at her breast. Our life is poured into them.”
I found this artwork store called Sweet Sequels on Pinterest and I’m obsessed. Watch out family, all your gifts will be from there this Christmas.
I bought this lounge set from Amazon for postpartum, but I am already living in it. Sooo soft, just don’t put it in the dryer!
Thanks for reading!
Have a peaceful week,
Hannah Chartier
This article illustrates the saying, “(Abundant) Life is a bowl full of cherries”!☺️
What a lovely reminder. Thank you, and prayers for your pregnancy!