Cheerful Receiver.

Living in the country brings more then the average amount of pests across our doorstep. (Warning: this information may deter you from visiting.) We evicted the mice before we moved in. And currently there are spiders: large, hairy, freakish spiders that pounce, and don’t squish, and I hate them. They are inside of my house. And flies—they pester your whole sleep, making you feel like a cadaver at times. Yesterday my daughter caught a snake and promptly brought the thing in the house. Daddy was as excited as she, and they held it on the couch, it nearly escaping into my couch more then once. Thankfully said snake was tiny, and now back outdoors, but I still kept my distance.  

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I prefer the deer that meander down the road, the fox we saw scurrying in the ditch at dark last night. The majestic antlers of the buck who weightlessly bounded before us over the trail we walked this spring. 

I prefer to pick my favorite of God’s creation; marvel it. And shudder and despise the others of His hand. I would like to know what good is found in mosquitoes, blood thirsty, disease carriers? And in flies, pests of this earth. Really—anything? And God says His work is good. Science says that our ecosystem would be in serious trouble without these insects which feed many and do cleanup control, but couldn’t a less troublesome creation have been made?

He is the creator, my very life of His making. Creation doesn’t choose.

A good God can’t create evil. It isn’t in His essence. His fiber is pure love.

I read that God loves a cheerful giver. If we are called to be like Him, transformed into His image, He must be a cheerful giver too.

He never gives because He has to, only because He wants to.

The whole of earth and creation were not made bland and colorless. From where I sit perched, the pink crisp line of color seeping over the hillside, shadows of trees over the ridge—He’s really outdone Himself. I see His love. I saw it in the breathtaking sunset last night, soft pillowing clouds, ruffled like scoops of ice cream with rays of sun streaming through over the backdrop of colors. Amazing.  Beauty is literally everywhere. He whispers again, Even in you. In my eye, the beholder—this love, His beauty in this earth is stunning.

But what about the snake, those flies?

Am I a cheerful receiver of God’s gifts? All of them?

Am I a cheerful receiver of my long nose and freckled skin? Am I a cheerful receiver of my life? My troubles? Do I see all of His work as good? Do I thank Him? How do I give back to Him?  Wiping a dirty face after dinner cheerfully, does this give back thanks to God for the meal He provided? Does disciplining in love show Him I’m grateful for the child? Does forgiving and letting go prove my gratitude for the man He gave as my husband? Because I loath the flies, frown at the stained shirts, sigh in my lectures, hold anger against my husband. I forget to be a cheerful giver, cheerful receiver.

His works, His goodness are in the eye of the beholder, and our eyes cannot see what His can. Sometimes we cannot see the goodness. All we have to do is believe it is there.

I question your gifts Lord. Too often I am not grateful. Help me to declare your works good today, all of them. Help me to cheerfully give Your love to others: to trying children, to ever patient husband, to those you bring in my path this day. Help me to cheerfully receive what You deem best for me: take the pain as a gift to show Your strength. Take the trial as the means to keep me at Your side. Receive Your will with a servant’s willing heart. Thank you for your good gifts. Each one.

(And Lord, I’ll be a lot more cheerful about the beautiful, large hairy spiders if they live on the outside of my house.)

2 Corinthians 9:7

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity;

for God loves a cheerful giver.