Reserved Seats

It is Super Sunday and many will pay huge sums to have a seat in the stadium, still others will pay huge sums to upgrade their home "theater" and reserve a seat in front of the big screen so they won't miss the big game. It reminds me of a time a few years ago when my wife and I attended our local county fair. We got there in the afternoon and that evening's attraction was to a tractor pull. We were checking out the grounds that afternoon and wandered into the grandstand area where the tractor pull would take place later that evening. It was a grassy hillside with wood benches mounted in rows ascending up the hill. Your normal county fair grandstands for the "cheap seats" area. What was different though was that many of the wood plank benchs had blankets duct-taped to them. A huge section in the middle, presumably, the "best" seats were completely "blanketed" and each blanket was taped down to its spot.

Apparently, the tractor pull was such a big deal that people needed to "reserve" seats in the general admission (admission was free by the way) area. That way, they could go out and enjoy the rest that the county fair had to offer and then return to their choice seats just in time for tractor pull. Taping the blankets down made it less likely that someone would come along and take your spot and yet it allowed you to go out and enjoy yourself without constantly worrying about getting into the stands early enough to get "your" seat.

That fact also reminds me of tenebrae or Christmas Eve, when you have to get to church "early" so as to have a seat in the sanctuary (too bad that isn't EVERY worship).

Ultimately, it reminds me of the promise Jesus the Messiah made to us in John 14:2 (NIV) "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."

No need to duct-tape a blanket to a seat in Heaven, no need to spend my days worrying about my place, I can just live out my faith each day in full confidence that I have been saved by grace through faith.