RECEIVE
On the old hit show “Trading Spaces” friendly neighbors give a lackluster room in their homes over to each other and a couple of opinionated designers, and trust them to deliver a totally new look to it. They’re hoping that somehow, miraculously, the designer assigned to their home will have the same taste they do. In the most captivating episodes, that usually isn’t the case .
The intriguing part is watching the shocked couple with the new, not~ to~ their~ liking room trying to graciously thank their neighbor friends, the designers, and the show host for something you know is coming down as soon as the production truck pulls away. It’s hard to cultivate a grateful response when disappointment is clouding the way. Most of the time, as someone watching from afar, you have to say, “Well, it’s better than you had before, give it a chance.”
When Jesus traded his own space in heaven for the chance to make something new of the dying old world before him, it was hard to find even one grateful party. Everyone was sitting around waiting for a warrior Messiah ~ someone with a room with a view of the promised land. They expected him to arrive and, in one broad stroke, vanquish their enemies and make everything right again.
Instead they got the Prince of Peace, who to be sure was ready to do some rearranging. Trouble was, he was more interested in their hearts than their land. And apparently the only enemy he was interested in vanquishing was the unbelievable baggage of expectations and demands everyone seemed to be carrying around with them ~ both for him and for their own lives. what no one expected was that all the change he left behind would be so beautiful. By the time they discovered it, he wasn’t around to thank ~ in person anyways, we had done away with him because he didn’t operate or move as we wanted him to.
As Joni Mitchell sang “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” Sometimes the best gifts come in unexpected packages. If your willing to be patient and wait to discover what might not be obvious at first, you may find that every day, every moment, every person you meet is a gift to your life. And they all come from the ultimate giver of all good things.
Question:
It truly is better to give than to receive, but a grateful receiver can be a gift back to the giver. Think of the gifts God has given you and your response to those gifts. What were they? Cultivate your own grateful heart and share.
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