Give And Take

It was sweet and simple, but clear as a bell…

“Take what He gives, and give what He takes”.

It sounds almost cliche, like something on a bumper sticker or something, but I’d never heard it before.  It was that voice in my heart, that “whisper” in my ear two days ago as I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day.  It was all about trust.  Complete and utter trust.

Look at the first part of the phrase – “Take what He gives”.  To me that has such profound meaning.  Everything thing that we experience in life comes through the filter of His hand.  Nothing can touch us that He does not allow.  A friend and I were talking yesterday about how “every good and perfect gift” comes from God.  That is truth.  But are we always looking for His gifts to come in pretty wrapping and lovely bows?  What if the gift looks more like a piece of coal?  Do we assume that it’s something bad?  What if we realized that He gave us that piece of coal because He was going to transform it into a diamond?  Why didn’t He just give the diamond in the first place?  Because there are beautiful things that happen in our character, in our faith, when that process of transformation is taking place.  Sometimes His gifts DO look like presents, but sometimes His presence is the gift.

We can trust His hand.  Nothing escapes His attention to detail.  He knows what He gives and it is ALL good.  “Take what He gives”.  Embrace it.  It is a gift.

Now the second part of the phrase – “Give what He takes”.  This one can be just as difficult as accepting His gifts.  He might ask us to let go of a dream, a job, a relationship, control.  Anything that is taking up space in the hand He wants to hold and lead.  Once again, it’s all about trust.  He KNOWS the plans He has for us and they are excellent.  What we are letting go of might be good, but what He will give in return is even better.  What if we trust His heart enough to humbly, though somewhat fearfully, let our grip go and actually GIVE Him what He’s asking for?  How would our faith deepen?  How would our lives be transformed?

“Take what He gives and give what He takes.”  It’s not a one time thing.  It’s a lifelong journey of practice that becomes habit.  We begin to hold things a little more loosely so that we are prepared to give them back to the Giver if He asks.  Not because He wants to tease or hurt us, but because He is so aware of our condition, our need of Him and His intervention in our lives that He takes things out to put new things in.  If we can look at all that we experience and enjoy as well as the things that are difficult in our lives as seasons, then the changing of the seasons will not surprise us.  When He brings the “spring flowers” we will fully enjoy every sight and smell of them.  And when the flowers disappear at the end of a hot summer and fall comes we will revel in the changing colors of the leaves, knowing that those colors come before they fall to the ground in preparation for the next season.  Winter.  Winter is cold and wet and dark.  But even in the winter there is the warmth of a fire, the beauty of the snow, the family-gathering holidays.  And when winter has had its way and the ground and vegetation have endured their season of hibernation, spring comes again and with it, new flowers.  Renewed hope.

Every season is a gift.  A good gift.  He gives and He takes away and all of it is very, very, very good.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 – 

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.