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But the meek share inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. --Psalm 37:11 NRSV
What do you think when you see a catalogue? Have you ever thought of it as a mirror?
Do you remember when we used to receive a Christmas catalogue in the mail? There is a story about two brothers in how they looked at it after it arrived. One was too young to understand what catalogues were all about. So the older one, when he looked at the catalogue pointed to the items there and said, “I want that; and that; and that!” The younger one pointed to the pictures he saw and said, “We’ve got that; and that; and that.”
It doesn’t take long for our children to understand how things are sold and how to make their wishes known. We are always looking for what we don’t have and it seems that what we don’t have has a powerful way of capturing us. We feel our need and our lack and we want it.
It isn’t that we are not grateful for what we have but when we want something, it can fill our vision with that need rather than with the abundance we are surrounded with. Advertisers are experts in making us feel this way so that we will buy what they are selling.
We are taught in the Church that we are the children of God. This is the most important thing that can be said about us. This place we have in the kingdom identifies us with the abundant grace of God. Our relationship with Jesus helps keep all that in perspective.
Abundance can make us grateful or it can make us greedy. We become grateful when we remember the God who has given it to us; we become greedy when we compare what we have with others.
In this way a catalogue or a website can be a mirror to us. When we look there, do we see with eyes of gratitude or do we look with eyes of greed or envy? Are we defined by who we are or by what we have or want?
The meek are those who know they are the children of God. It is not hard to be humble when we stand in God’s presence. Yet, it is easy to become proud in ourselves. When that happens, our self-worth comes from what we have and the way of the world tells us that we can never have enough.
When we look behind the face in the mirror to the heart and soul of the life that is in us, what is it that we value? What has a hold on us? People who live in an abundance of things can often live with a poverty of spirit. Things cannot give us life, only God can do that.
We thank God that God has given us what we need to live through an abundance of Spirit so that we need not get lost in our abundance of things.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! May it reflect an abundance of Spirit as you walk in the grace of being a child of God.
Pastor Dale
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