Why Do We Need All This?

I was reading through the book of Exodus. It's the story of the Israelites being led out of captivity in Egypt into the wilderness. At one point (Exodus 25) Moses is directed to collect contributions from the people in order to build the tabernacle. The people brought everything from gold and silver to goat hair and rams' skins.

As I read that I was reminded of what had happened several chapters back (Exodus 12:33). Just after all the plagues when Pharaoh finally agreed to let the people go, the Bible says that the Israelites asked the Egyptians for all kinds of stuff, and they gave it to them - stuff like gold and silver, animals and livestock. In fact it says that they let them have what they asked!

It sounded strange at the time, but now in Exodus 25 we can see the purpose. Where would the Israelites have come up with the materials needed to build the tabernacle if they had not taken all of these things from the Egyptians?

In our own lives God often blesses us beyond what we need or deserve. Not just with stuff, but with gifts, desires, talents and abilities. The question is am I willing to give it back to Him when He needs it to build something? (That something is His Kingdom). Am I willing to bring as my contribution whatever He has supplied to me, to be used for His glory?

These things don't really belong to me. The stuff the Israelites collected was never really their stuff, it was God's. He arranged for them to carry it out into the wilderness so that when the time came, they could put it all together and build God's house.

Are you holding on to something that you need to give back to God?

I'm Back!

Sorry about that. If you've been wondering where I disappeared to, so have I. I'm back though, and I think I'll share a little story about Kelsey, my youngest daughter. (She's 3).

The other day at the dinner table I was trying to get through to my almost teenager 12 year old daughter Kara. After several minutes of explaining something, I said "Do you see what I am saying?" She nodded. Then I heard from the other side of the table:

"Daddy, it's 'do you hear what I am seeing, not do you see what I am saying.'"

What do you say to that? We just laughed.

Snow Flakes & God Moments

The other day when it started snowing I was on the way to Best Buy with my son Garren. When we left the store to get back in the truck it had really started coming down. We got in the truck, and Garren looked down at his sleeve to check out one of the flakes that had stuck to his arm. He said "This doesn't really look like a snowflake."

After a little more discussion, it turned out his only point of reference for what a snowflake looks like is the cut-out-of-paper snowflakes. Then I said, "Did you realize that there are no two snowflakes alike?" That got us to thinking -- all the snowflakes in the world, throughout the history of snowflakes, are different. How creative our God must be to come up with that many different snowflakes!

Our God truly is amazing, and to spend that much detail on something as small and insignificant as a snowflake is really pretty amazing. Think how much more He cares about you!

There is still one question I need your help with. If no two snowflakes are alike, then how do we know what a snowflake looks like?