Rachel Whisman

By the end of the school day, my desk is swarmed with various drawings from throughout the day. Some seem very insignificant, with just a drawing of a cute little strawberry with my name next to it. Others look more extravagant, from their dedication to adding more color to the whole page or incorporating more details. 

By the end of the school day, some students have brought me to the end of my rope…and I’m exhausted. I finally get to catch my breath in the silence and solitude of an empty room, after putting out fires throughout the day because all they brought me was misbehavior, defiance, or disrespect.

By the end of the school day, I have been inundated by a multitude of hugs from my students. I’ll sometimes come back from a meeting and my students’ eyes will beam with delight as they are giddy to burst out, “We missed you so much, Ms.Whisman.” All the way to a child inching closer to me and asking, “Can I give you a hug?” or “Can I have a hug?”.

By the end of the day, some warm my heart with their affection, while others ignite it with tension as I wrestle with their sin and mine as well. They all bring me something. Although not 2nd graders, we all bring something to God as well. 

As I watch what my kids have brought me, I do prefer the gifts, the endearments, love, and sweetness over the misbehavior. Would God not want the same? Yes and no because when you think about it, what did we originally bring God? Pressing further, did we bring Him anything? No. In fact we brought nothing because before Chirst, we were fine disregarding Him and “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:1). It was only because, “According to His great mercy that He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3) that we even have hope. We didn’t make the first move towards him, but he came to us. And when He came to us, we still only emitted the vile, foul odor of death (Ephesians 2:1). In the stench, He did not retreat, but redeemed. He brought us life. 

He initiated and therefore, we now get to continually bring to him our lives as a sacrifice of worship (Romans 12:1). We now get to bring him words of endearment because of the “great love He has lavished on us” (1 John 3:1). Since He saw you to the full extent of your humiliation, that you can’t even fully comprehend, will He not also bring to you what you need in the day to day? We get to offer him praise and thanks for the smallest joys, His faithfulness in the sufferings we experience, and the inconceivable blessings he bestows. 

God is constantly bringing to us aid through His Spirit (John 16:13-15). He is never going to stop. The question is, what are you bringing to him? What heart posture are you bent towards? One of humility that has an infectious spirit of “Thank you, Jesus” or “I love you” because the cross is your starting point? Or one of murmur, discontent, and disrespect because you are the starting point? Fortunately, God can handle whatever we bring to Him, but may we not disregard him as our Holy Father deserving of our full respect and admiration, as we bring ourselves to submit to his all-powerful wisdom and care.

But how hard it is to retain in our memories an object that has no place in our affections. How little pleasure can we find in coming to the table of one whom we regard with indifference. We may, indeed, bring our bodies; but our hearts will be absent; and the whole service will be uninteresting to ourselves and no better than solemn mockery in the estimation of Christ.

-Edward Payson