Introduction
The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-yr. old daughter for wasting a roll of red wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a heart-shaped box for Valentine’ s Day. Nevertheless, the sweet little child brought the gift to her father the next morning and said: “This is for you, Daddy.” He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, “Don’t you know that when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside it?”
His daughter looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy.” The father was emotionally crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. It is told that the man kept the heart-shaped box beside his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.
First, in a very real sense, each of us as God’s child is like a heart-shaped box full of unconditional love and kisses from our children and family. We are blessed with these relationships & with those of our church family and Christian friends which help us on our journey to heaven. We can lean on or be leaned upon by them when we struggle or become discouraged.
Secondly, our Lord has given each of us gifts within – both physical and emotional gifts. We are reminded in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.”
The explanation of this parable is this: each servant received something. God has given each of us one or more gifts. My skill set may differ from yours. For example, I may be able to teach a first-grade Bible class, but I am not skilled in teaching adults. However, God has given me the ability to relate to young children because I have young children of my own. God has given each of us one or more abilities, so that we can be a blessing to others and bring glory to Him.
But our Lord sees within each of us the possibilities of additional ways to serve Him by developing other talents we may have. We have been entrusted with God’s love & He gives us boldness: 2
Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Sometimes we just need to come out of our comfort zone. At other times, another Christian may recognise an ability that we haven’t seen ourselves. What a good time for encouragement! Let’s challenge each other to develop new skills and talents.
