remember when your elementary school set up santa's shop in your gymnasium!!???
remember the tables upon tables of flimsy, useless crap that they overcharged us for? remember how we paid them whatever price they slapped down because we were still young enough that we trusted strangers in santa hats?
think of the fortune they must have pulled in. it's sheer genius.
i remember i would wake up shivery with excitement, anticipating my first steps into that fantastical winter wonderland. my mom would put a glittery red coinpurse in my lunchbox with a list of people to buy gifts for.
herself included.
garfield the cat potholder? score.
brooch shaped like a smiling teapot? jackpot.
she might as well have put her money through a paper shredder.
but no, being the mommiest mom in the world, she would always go wild over this junk and thank me repeatedly for being such a thoughtful daughter.
it wasn't until we had this wonderful community remember-when session that i grasped the ridiculousness of the whole situation.
my mom gave me HER money to buy HER a crappy gift, which i then ecstatically presented her with and she oh-so-sincerely raved over. but that's the beauty of being a kid: thinking you're awesome when really you're just being lovingly indulged.
this makes me think of God. (oh yea - i'm going to bring it back to that.)
i think about how awesome i think i am with the "work" that i'm doing for His kingdom or the "worship" that i offer him. i threw the quotes on there to emphasize the ridiculousness of THIS situation. He doesn't NEED my worship. He doesn't NEED my help with any of His work. For God's sake....He's God! anything we could offer Him is really just something He could reach down and snatch from us anyway.
But in his infinite Grace and mommish indulgence, He allows us to partner in creation and even goes as far as to say that our praise is a sweet song in His ears and that by living sacrificially, we are pleasing to Him.
my favorite Bible verse says that
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
all we have to offer is crap from santa's shop and He - the guy who made aaaaalllllll of this delights in us and rejoices over us???
that's the kind of God i can jump on board with.
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