A Deserving Gift
Grandpa's Gibson L3
What is the most precious gift you ever received? What did you do with it?
I was a teenager when my grandfather passed. I adored him, this tall, strong, quiet man who loved to laugh and sing. He didn't have much that was just his, except for the scissors and razors he used in his trade as a barber, and his instruments of pure joy, a guitar and a mandolin.
I inherited the guitar and my cousin got the mandolin. Neither of us could play at the time, and to this day, over forty years later, I have yet to learn.
The guitar remains one of my most treasured possessions, but the mandolin was destroyed many years ago.
I remember complaining to my mother when I heard of the fate of that beautiful instrument that it should never have been given to my cousin since he didn't value it the way I valued the guitar.
If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ - Acts 11:17
A short while ago I learned that my grandson wanted to study the guitar and I was overjoyed. I knew that while I had taken good care of the instrument, I had not done it justice. I had not played it the way it was made to be played.
Perhaps, I thought, my grandson would bring it to life.
But he soon fell out of interest, as I had at his age, so it remains a precious gift that is treasured and not used.
There is something wrong with that, I think. In a way, my cousin got more out of the mandolin than I have from the guitar. Neither were made to sit idle.
In today's reading, Peter learns that the gifts of God are for everyone, not just for one people. But what good is receiving the gift without putting it to use?
I understand Peter's reluctance to put such a precious gift in the hands of those who have no tradition of understanding on which to value such a gift. But that would be as wrong as it is for me to say that my cousin didn't deserve the mandolin.
Do I deserve a guitar that doesn't get to sing?
I have said before that I will learn to play grandpa's guitar before it turns 100 years old in 2017. I still have time, I think. Perhaps I should get started.
More to come...