Monday Morning Offering - 14

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

I was thinking last night before I went to bed,
well, I guess I was praying because I was thinking about you...

I was praying, hoping, trusting
that you're very much like a wonderful mom or dad,
or grandmother or grandfather,
who smiles and oohs and ahs
over the simplest things a child comes running
to drop in your lap...

Little kids do this all the time, Lord,
and I know you know that already...

They find some little trinket
or they scribble something on a scrap of paper
with stubs of crayons or magic markers
and they come running, grinning,
to hand such a prize, such a gift to another...

I've got plenty of trinkets and scribblings
to offer you, Lord,
and I hope you like them
not because they're all that beautiful
but simply because they're from me...

I'm pretty sure that's why wonderful moms and dads
and grandmothers and grandfathers love
whatever a child drops in their lap,
simply because it's from their child...

Of course I'm not a child, Lord, I'm a grown-up!
Well, at least I try to be...
Sometimes I'm still a child,
sometimes I'm really childish,
and sometimes I am who I am,
who you made me to be...

I want to offer you gifts from who I am, Lord,
today, this Monday morning, this week...

I want to offer you what I have right now:
not what I've lost and wish I still had...
not what I hope to find but haven't yet...

I want to offer you the heart of me,
who I am, today...

What I have this day is unfinished, Lord...
It's incomplete, has rough edges,
isn't as pretty nor near as neat as I wish it were...
But it's what I have...

As I lift it up to you,
I see that it's falling apart in a few places...
And the patches on old mistakes are showing
just in the places I wish they didn't show...

But as I stand before your giant lap this morning,
I believe there's a place for what I have to offer you today...

And when I look up into your face,
I'm pretty sure I see you smiling at me
and marveling at my little gift,
just like a wonderful mom or dad
or grandmother or grandfather would...

And for that I'm thankful, Lord, so very thankful!

Help me see the beauty you see in what I offer...
Help me look beyond its unfinished edges...
Help me to accept what's falling apart
as work for your mending hand...
Help me learn to love the patches
as the places where you have healed me...
Help me to see that it's the giver you love
and that my simple gifts are but the tokens
that bring us together...

Accept me, Lord, and what I have to offer...

Help me offer my simple gifts
to those I meet this day...
Open me to the gifts others have for me...

And most of all,
open me to the gift of this day,
the day you have offered me...

Amen.

-ConcordPastor