Surplus (Bright Year: Day 52)

Last year our family invested in a rain barrel. The idea was that we could set it on our deck and use it to water the plants up there. We attached it to a downspout and waited. At the time it seemed like a mighty storm would be required to fill it up.

Not so. Clouds came along and dropped perhaps a quarter inch. Suddenly the rain barrel was full. Overflowing, actually.

This is the power of the resurrection too. The risen Jesus gathers all the power of life and funnels it to us. He collects far more than we could ever hope for. There is a cumulative effect of sorts, a multiplication. The divine economy is “defined by the logic of superabundance,” writes Devin Singh, and resurrection is “the surplus of grace.”

So it is that I’ve realized my true problem. My barrel isn’t big enough.