Gifts Given

J was in a program at church last Sunday called The Drum. His role was that of a boy who was very worried that he didn't have a gift to take to baby Jesus. J played opposite of a peddler. The peddler said my favorite line of the entire play: "If Got wants you to have a gift, he'll put it in your hand." The peddler then handed him a drum, not knowing that the gift to be given to the Christ Child would be a song played by the boy on the drum.

Have you ever wished you had been given a gift by God that you did not have?

I was sitting at my desk yesterday, looking at an old email that I had written to VBS volunteers last summer, searching for something. In the middle of reading the email, the song Voice of Truth came on the radio across the room. It's one of my favorites, so I got up to turn up the volume (The remote's battery is dead, and don't get me started as to why the radio is across the room). Instead of going back to my desk, I stood there, with the radio, and listened to the rest of the song. I found myself wishing that I could sing; I would love to be able to share God's word with our congregation through song. I am so blessed by music; God speaks to me through music, and I would love to be able to share that gift.

I know that God has given me gifts, and there isn't one that he has given me that I would TRADE for some other gift, but if he were to give me one more, I would love to be able to sing.

Once the song was over, I went back to my desk and looked at the email. There, right on my screen, were these words from that old VBS email.

Never has there been and never again
Will there be another you.
Fashioned by God's hand
And perfectly planned
To be just who you are.
And what he's been creating
Since the first beat of your heart
is a living, breathing, priceless work of art
It's a verse from Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Fingerprints of God." If God wants you to have a gift, he'll put it in your hand.

About an hour later, I left the lab to go take care of something. When I came back, guess what song was on the radio? Fingerprints of God. Just in case I missed it the first time.

You and I were created by God, imagined by Him, to be "just who we are."

And then I read this at lunch in Ortberg's book:

The voice also whispers, do not despise your place, your gifts, or your voice, for you cannot have anothers, and it would not fulfill you if you could.

I'm not crazy about the verb -- I'm not despising anything -- I love my gifts, but I get it. All I have to do is to be who I was created to be. To use the voice I have been given. To nurture and serve with the gifts I have been given. I will be who I was created to be. No more, no less. Isn't that a beatitude?

You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought. (Matthew 5:5 -- The Message)

Amen.