Many years ago at a retreat I was invited to come to a table filled with cups of every kind and choose one. I did so, and the juice of communion was poured into that cup and bread was broken for me. I truly experienced the Presence of Christ in that cup and with that bread, in that moment taking in his sacrifice for me, the offering of his blood poured out and his body broken. I believed and as I did, received anew what He was offering. Today I still treasure that blue cup as a remembrance of the day I was more deeply able to receive Him.
Years later when I was diagnosed with cancer, part of the Lord’s instruction in walking through the “water and the fire” of that experience was to take communion often. I had the elements at home, blessed them, and very intentionally received and savored the Eucharist. In doing so, I remembered and participated in his death, that He took my place in the Cross and released healing to me. I also took my place with him in the Cross and anticipated his coming again.
Communion points to the new covenant sealed with Christ’s blood and calls us to step into the power of the Cross for our very life. We remember what He has done; we remember Whose we are. Recently I’ve been taking communion more frequently again. Three weeks ago, while visiting a church with my youngest daughter and her family, I was touched by this simple song we sang during communion:
We belong to you, Lord of our longing, we belong to you.
In our daily living, dying and rising, we belong to you.
When we share the bread you’ve broken, we are blessed and we are broken:
We belong to you.
Indeed, we belong to the One who bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, was stricken, wounded, bruised and chastened for our well-being (Isa. 53:45). So we come to His table at His invitation, take the cup and the bread in remembrance of His sacrifice, and rejoice again and again that we are His.
Recommended book: The Power of Communion by Beni Johnson
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