Risks and Rewards

I remember going to a birthday party as a little girl, where the cake was so beautiful, the mother of the birthday girl didn’t want to cut it. Presumably she’d had it made and perhaps it was expensive. I must have been seven or eight and, at that age, cutting the birthday cake was one of the highlights of any birthday party. I was not the only guest to be bitterly disappointed.

I am ambivalent about gifts of fine china. Should one keep them safe so they don’t get broken, or use them for their intended purpose? I have done both. When my grandchildren were babies, my daughter and I covered one of their feet in ceramic glaze and imprinted footprints onto china bisque-ware. My first grandchild’s footprints were on a sugar bowl which was fired and the prints made permanent. I happily filled my sugar bowl with sugar and thought about my adorable granddaughter every time I used it. One day it fell. A piece broke off from one side and a crack appeared in the other. Out came all the sugar and the sugar bowl now sits on my highest shelf with the jagged hole facing the back. On either side are milk jugs (which have never been used) adorned with the footprints of two subsequent grandchildren. I hardly ever look at them.

For Christmas my daughter made my husband and I Granny and Grampa mugs with our favourite Bible verses painted on them. Every morning I have been drinking my first coffee of the day in my mug and enjoying it. I thought about my daughter and occasionally the Scripture verse. (Philippians 4:13) Today the mug slipped off the tray my husband was carrying and broke.

I do not regret the choice I made. I have been enjoying that mug so much more than if I had put it away to keep it safe. The memory will always be there.

It is all a matter of weighing up the risks and the rewards.

I think God had to weigh up the risks and rewards when He decided to entrust us with His gospel. Paul says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God…,” Clay jars break easily. God could have entrusted His kingdom to angels to proclaim but He chose to use us because the rewards were worth the risks to Him. Yes, there is a chance that we might fail, that we might mess up. God was willing to take the risk for the reward of working together with us, His beloved children to fulfill his purposes.

My Prayer

Father God, You know exactly how fragile I am, that I am just dust. Thank You for the privilege of being Your child. Thank You for letting me be part of Your great plan to redeem the world. I want to get to know You more as You work in me to will and to do your good pleasure. Amen.

Taste Test

Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

Every baby knows that one can’t tell what a thing is like unless one has tasted it for oneself. Unlike sight and hearing, where one can experience something in a big crowd, taste is very personal and has an element of risk. Anybody and everybody can admire a glorious sunset but, while it may be uplifting, there is no direct interaction. A rousing  overture can be heard by thousands of people at once but they are not personally involved. Smell is indiscriminate. Nobody has a choice regarding what smells might waft in and out of our nostrils although we can move our bodies to get closer or further away and we can breathe in deeply or block our noses.

Taste is normally a choice. We can choose to interact with something by putting it in our mouth or, if we are more cautious, putting a tiny bit on our finger and transferring it to our tongue. There is always some degree of faith required. Do we trust the person who is inviting us to taste something, or might they be trying to poison us or play a practical joke?

What we taste cannot be tasted by anybody else – it is changed in the process. There is real interaction. We make ourselves vulnerable to possibly find something that we never knew before and is really delicious.

The psalmist exhorts us to not rely on other people’s experiences of God to know He is good. Taste and see for yourself.

Prayer. Lord, I am willing to take a chance. Please interact with me and show me how good You are. Amen.

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