When It Comes from the Heart…

When it comes from the heart…

When I was a child (elementary school age), my parents gave me a weekly allowance. I loved being able to go and buy them gifts at Christmas and on their birthdays with my own money. It made me feel like the gift was really from me. And I was pretty good at planning ahead and saving so I would have enough when the time came. It was in the shopping that I lacked skill. I tended to look at the gifts from a child’s perspective instead of what they might actually like. I remember one year I had saved for my mother’s birthday, and my grandfather took me down to the women’s clothing store. I came out with a jacket, pants, and shirt. Now, try to picture it in your mind. The jacket and pants were a matching set made from fabric printed with a pattern of the brightest and boldest ocean reef. It literally almost glowed in the dark. The shirt was fluorescent yellow. And… guess what… my mother wore this… to work… many times. Why? Well, as a parent, I know. And if you are a parent, you know too. She knew I had saved my money and this was filled with love. When she looked at that outfit, she did not see a glow-in-the-dark fashion monstrosity that I am sure others saw when she wore it. She saw my heart.

Recently, I began a Bible study on the life of David, and a certain passage in 2 Samuel, Chapter 6 caused me to reflect on the phrase “…the Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart…” (1 Samuel 13:14 KJV). Samuel uses this phrase as he describes the king that God has chosen for Israel. Now in 1 Samuel 16, God sends Samuel to the sons of Jesse to anoint the one He has chosen. As Samuel is standing in front of Jesse’s sons, the Lord says to Samuel, “…for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh at outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 KJV). With these verses in mind, I am shifting to the passage in 2 Samuel 6 that caught my attention. As they are bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem, it says, “…David danced before the Lord with all his might…” (2 Samuel 6:14 KJV). When I read this verse, I know this is sincere joy and worship. It is pretty hard to do something with all your might if your heart is not in it. But then, a few verses later, we are told how David’s wife, Michal reacts to his dancing. 2 Samuel 6:16 details, “…Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart” (KJV). But let us recall Paul’s words to the Colossians. He said, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23 KJV). David was dancing for the Lord, not for the people, or whoever might have been watching out the window. The Bible makes it clear that David was not perfect. David sinned and suffered the consequences of his sin. But God knew his heart. I can only imagine how happy God must have been as David danced with all his might. Whether he was a good dancer or not, David was dancing for the Lord. And that was the heart that his Father saw.

I have a friend who is retiring, and she has been training the person who will assume her position this week. The other day she shared with me that her goals all along have been 1.) to finish well, 2.) to leave things a little better than she found them, and 3.) to hand it off to the next person with as much knowledge as she can leave them. She went on to say… because I want to hear… “well done, (thou) my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21 KJV). As I read her text, I couldn’t help but think about how God must be smiling. At her workplace, she is going above and beyond expectations on a job that is about to be over. She is retiring. There is no resume of job references in the making. She is living out Colossians 3:23. She is going above and beyond because all of her goals have one major goal in mind. She is doing everything unto her Lord.

What an example to follow.