We Are A Pie. And Every Slice Belongs.

​If I am not careful, I can begin to look at my life as slices of pie and not a whole pie freshly baked and looking and smelling delicious.

If I am not careful, I can begin to long for the pieces of my pie that are missing and I can begin to resent pieces of my pie that are there.

The painful pieces. The broken pieces. The failure pieces.

Jesus never looks at us as slices. He sees us as whole pies. Complete, loved, always worthy of saving – even when some slices are burnt or broken or missing altogether.

Jesus doesn’t measure us by our worst slice or reserve his praise for our best slice. Jesus knows our entire story, the whole pie – he understands every ingredient – every mountain and every valley of every day that has made us who we are, and Jesus, he loves the whole pie.

Additionally, Jesus doesn’t see you and me and them as pieces either. He doesn’t try to determine which of us belongs and which of us does not. Me and you and them – we are the pie.

Jesus saw the prostitute, the tax collector, and the Pharisee as equally important parts of a larger story. He saw Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, and the thief beside him on the cross not as slices of a pie to be handed out to all of humanity, but instead as the very definition of humanity itself. A definition that would not be whole without each of them.

Jesus was and is constantly reminding us that we as individuals have no part of our story that does not belong. Maybe as a way of reminding us to look into the world, to look upon one another, and see no part of the story that does not belong.

Every slice, every life, every moment – broken or intact – is essential to God’s story.

When we look at ourselves through the world's eyes, we see slices—some good, some flawed—and we try desperately to hide or even reject or eject the imperfect parts. But through the eyes of Jesus, we are never just our worst slice or our greatest success. We are beloved, cherished, accepted—exactly as we are, because we are already whole.

It is Pi Day.

Maybe celebrate with a slice.

But as you do, be reminded:

Every slice belongs.