Introduction

This article is the November 2010 installment of my monthly message in the parish newsletter for Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb.

Message

All Good Gifts

An old and familiar hymn leads us to sing a refrain together:

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heav’n above.
Then thank the Lord, oh, thank the Lord
for all his love. (Lutheran Book of Worship 362)

When we set aside our duties, our tools for work, our playthings, and sit in quietness and gaze around us, we cannot rest our eyes upon anything that does not come to us from God our Father.

The passing moments that accumulate to create a lifetime, whether short or long, flow from the hand of the Almighty. This is the gift of Time. The abilities and capacities we have within our hearts and minds and hands that enable us to make something of our lives are the gifts of our Talents. All we possess, all of our things and our resources that sustain us, come from God. These Treasures are good gifts from Heaven. Even when we do not treat ourselves with the respect due to God’s creatures, we cannot fully erase the truth that our bodies are his temples. This means that our Tissue is a gift from God as well. Finally, we can recognize in the Trees a symbol for the whole creation that God the Father makes through his Word by the power of their Spirit.

These five Ts remind us of the gifts God has given us and the calling we have to practice the spiritual discipline of sTTTTTewardship. Throughout this month, we will lift up our calling to care for the abundance “sent from heav’n above” and to give thanks to the Lord for his blessings.

Before you find yourself overwhelmed by the burden of busyness, take another look around you. Close your eyes, then, and listen to the sounds of the creation. This is the world that God has made; he called it good; he gave it to us to care for in his name; he calls us to use this abundance in the Church to make known to all people the Good News about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

What has God given to you? How do you offer his gifts to him, so that he may use you and your blessings to bring him glory and to help spread the Word to all people?

Blessings,
Pastor David Frye