What do you collect?
I
used to collect sandcastles. Not the ones high tide washes away. The
permanent ones you can buy in shops on the boardwalk. Every summer on vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey, I
carefully chose another sandcastle to bring home.
Now
I collect teddy bears. Most of them spend most of the year in plastic bins in
the basement or attic, but they move to the living room in December. They are my Christmas bears, dozens of them. And my Hanukkah bears, three or four of them. And
a few assorted non-bears like sheep and dogs and even a moose. But mostly
bears. I often can’t resist adding to my plethora of bears; I especially like
rescuing cast off bears from thrift stores.
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| A fraction of my bears |
Does Jesus collect anything?
Today’s
devotion in the Secret Place
surprised me. Author John A. Fischer points out that we are God’s gift to
Jesus. I had to read that sentence twice. And underline it. “…God has given us to Jesus as a gift.” I’m used to
thinking of Jesus as God’s gift to me, but I never thought of myself as God’s
gift to Jesus. And yet there it is in John 17:24, a sentence in Jesus’ prayer
the evening of his arrest, “Father, I want those you have
given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have
given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
Jesus collects people given to him by his Father. He loves and treasures them. Even
though he has a plethora, many sets of ninety-nine, Jesus searches for the ones who are cast off and ragged. (See Luke 15.)
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| See the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. |
Who would have ever thought a girl
from Park Ridge, New Jersey would become part of a priceless collection? And yet I
am. And you can be, too.
