“But who am I, and who are my people,
That we should be able to offer so willingly as this?
For all things come from You,
And of Your own we have given You.”1 Chronicles 29:14, NKJV
Though I did not end up following Jon Gabriel in his journey from the megachurch to Eastern Orthodoxy, some time (years?) ago I read with interest his moving account of Swimming the Bosporus. (Read the whole thing, I recommend.)
Tonight I was listening in the car to a beautiful recording of “My Song Is Love Unknown”, and a single line from Mr. Gabriel’s Chapter 6 (“Angels in the Architecture”) came to mind. In describing the beauty of an Orthodox church, he says simply:
“God expresses Himself through the material world, and His people craft the wood and stone to offer it back to Him.”
Is it not that way with all that we offer, from the two mites given by the widow to the thousands of talents of gold and silver given by the leaders of the tribes of Israel, and everything before, and in between, and since?
Everything that we can give or do in worship, too. If there are crosses or candles or organs or choirs of human voices or melodies that they sing or words that are sung to those melodies, these are all out of the abundance of His gifts to us, and from them we give our offering back to Him. If we present our bodies a living sacrifice…
All things come of thee, O LORD, and of thine own have we given thee.
Blog Of My Sojourn 