I save.  My husband says I hoard.  But I know too well the rainy day and so I save.  Primarily gifts.  I don’t think I have ever thrown away a gift I have received because they are too precious and priceless in my eyes.  But I also rarely use them for fear of ruining or tarnishing them.

When I was in grade school, Nerf came out with a soccer ball.  It was all I wanted for Christmas.  When I was lucky enough to receive it, I kept it wrapped in the plastic it came in …  for years.  I didn’t want to ruin this gift that I had been given, I didn’t want it to lose the panels as I had seen happen to others, to slowly have its material chipped away so it looked like a cratered moon, to become less than what it was, because I knew I could not afford to replace it.  And so, this gift that I wanted more than anything, remained in plastic.  I did not use it. I certainly did not share it.   I kept it for later. My joy was knowing I had it… but I lost the purpose, the value and the joy of using it and sharing it with others.

Last night I realized I was doing the same with the gifts God gives us.  I keep them under wraps.  I am afraid to use them, lest they get ruined, lest others try to chip away at them, or are too rough.  I want to save them for another day when I can truly enjoy and savor them without fear of interruption or destruction, like they were a finite resource.  I hide the love of God afraid that someone will wreck my joy or tear it away from me.  I suddenly feel like the little kid holding on to a Nerf soccer ball still wrapped in plastic.

I know that God’s love is infinite.  No one can destroy it or chip it away.  Only we can prevent our own self from enjoying it, from experiencing the joy that comes from Him, from sharing it with others.  Nothing we or anyone else does can destroy His love or take it away from us.

As Paul told the Romans:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,  nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:38-39

I know this and yet I still try to save it.

Jesus tells us in multiple ways throughout the Bible to use the gifts that we have been given,  to share God’s love and God’s light with others:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.

Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

Matthew 5:13-16

God’s love is infinite, but my opportunity to share it is not. I outgrew the soccer ball before the plastic ever came off. I do not want that to happen with the gifts God has given me.

Lord,

I am ready to unwrap the plastic.  I am ready to move the light that you gave me out from under the bushel basket.  I am ready to shout from the mountain tops about your love.  Help me to use the gifts that you have given me in the manner in which you have intended.  Help me to follow your will and to glorify you in all that I do. Help me to start right now. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Not when I have time. Not when I get around to it. Now.