Every June and December during my early years as a
gift giver, I gave my father a carefully wrapped soap-on-the-rope. My
dad, without fail, responded with what I took as delight, commenting on
its color or scent before dutifully hanging
it from the showerhead in the master bathroom. There it would stay,
untouched, I later learned, until he could quietly slip it into the
trash.
Turns out that THE perfect Father’s Day/Christmas
gift—a woodsy-smelly, interestingly hued bar that hung from a rope so
you could NEVER DROP IT—gave my father a wicked rash. Yet, for love of
me and my enthusiasm he spared my feelings until
I was mature enough to see the tender humor in this semiannual
exchange.
King David, nearing the end of his life in 1
Chronicles, blesses God as the source of everything—including the gifts
the people have just offered (29:6ff). He marvels at the absurdity of
presuming to “give” something to the One who is source
of all: “who am I, and what is my people…. For we are aliens and
transients before you” (v.14-15). And yet God has claimed them as
children and takes delight in them and their openhearted gesture of
giving “without ulterior motive,” as the word translated
“uprightness” suggests.
What gift of yourself might this season of Lent be
inviting you to share? Can you imagine God receiving it with the
pleasure of a love-smitten parent beholding a beaming child as she
thrusts forth a present and squirms with glee at the
surprise inside? Do not be afraid of getting it wrong. God will not
reject you. The God who is the source of all that is good takes delight
in you.
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