A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 4/19

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

I was thinking last night before I went to bed,

well, I guess I was praying, Lord,

because I was thinking about you...

I was thinking, 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 their lap...

Little kids do this all the time, Lord
-- and I know you know this 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 parents
and grandparents cherish and 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 a grown-up...

But sometimes I'm still a child
and sometimes I'm really childish
and sometimes I am just who I am,
the child you made me to be...

I want to offer you gifts you'll love and cherish, Lord,

gifts made from the gifts you've given me,

gifts made from who I am,

the gifts I have to offer this Monday morning,

April 19, 2021...

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,

just the gifts I have right now...

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

And what I have today is unfinished, Lord:

it's incomplete, has rough edges,

isn't all that pretty no

and not near as neat as I wish it were...

But it's what I have...

And as I lift my gift 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, I hope, I pray 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 my gift's 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've healed me...

Help me to see that it's the giver you love

and that my simple gifts are but tokens

that bring us together...

Accept me, Lord, I pray,

and what I have to offer...

Help me offer my simple gifts
to others I meet today...

Open me to the gifts others have for me...