12 February 2006

Offertory - "We Give Thee But Thine Own"

Have you ever pondered over the fact that our Lord commanded the use of bread and wine, not wheat and grapes? It's a giving contest of sorts:

He gives us wheat and grapes.
We work to transform them into bread and wine.
Then we give them back to Him at His command - and He seems to say: "You think THAT'S something! Well, how about this!"
And He proceeds to transform the bread and wine into something so much more: His body and His blood, given for us and for the forgiveness of our sins.

Which is all to say that anything we offer is only His gift to begin with, and that the ability to labor over those gifts is a gift from Him, and that when at His command we offer His gifts and our labor back to Him, He in turns blesses them to be so much more than anything we could ever dare desire or dream of. You can never outgive Him!

Glory to Your condescenion, O Lover of man!

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