READ: Exodus 35-36
THINK: During my senior year of college I was playing darts in my room with my roommates one day. For the sake of the story and with the hope that neither of them reads this and attempts to make a counter-claim in the comments section we’ll go with this: I was beating them so terribly badly that I decided to just stay seated on the couch on the far end of the room for one of my turns in order to make things fair. It certainly wasn’t because I was losing and frustrated. 🙂 But either way, it turns out that I’m not an accurate dart thrower from a seated position far from the dartboard. I kind of expected that would be the case. But I didn’t expect what happened next. My first throw missed the board by about 8 inches and the dart disappeared into the wall. Like, all the way through. And it wasn’t because I threw it hard.
Naturally, we were all surprised and we ran over to the wall to look and realized that the dart had sailed right through the wallpaper because there was a hole in the drywall that had just been papered over instead of fixed. My first thought was that it was a crazy coincidence that my dart hit that exact spot in the wall. But, upon further examination as we continued to peel back the paper over the hole, we realized that someone had wallpapered over an absolutely massive hole in the drywall that was nearly 3 feet by 3 feet in size. At first I wondered if I should be impressed. Then I wondered why I had never before wondered why only 1 wall had wallpaper. Then I decided that it takes a herculean amount of laziness to decide to just paper over the wall without fixing it.
Chances are, the person who put the hole in the wall decided against fixing it because fixing holes in drywall isn’t easy. It takes measuring and cutting, taping, pasting, sanding, and time. I have a deep appreciation for people who can do it well. If I’m honest I can say that I’m not very handy and I’d have likely opted for just papering over the hole myself. But my lack of handiness helps me to deeply appreciate those who can do things I cant. Like carpenters who can build houses and make things fit without measuring 50 times. Or weavers and artists like the ones who were commissioned to help put together the Tabernacle. Bezelel and Oholiab were incredible at what they did, and they did it to the very best of their ability. That’s why they were chosen to use their talents to glorify God and construct his Tabernacle. And God was honored and glorified through their work.
Every single one of us has the opportunity to honor and glorify God through our work as well. Whether you’re a student and you’re thinking about what to be when you grow up or you’ve already grown up and chosen a vocation, know that your work is given to you by God for his glory. Proverbs 22:29 says that a person who excels in their work will stand before kings. And Paul urges us in Colossians 3:23 that whatever we do ought to be done wholeheartedly unto the Lord. So, whether you’re studying in school or you’re a teacher or a doctor or an engineer or a pastor or a lawyer or a musician or an artist or a custodian or a nurse or an actuary or salesperson or hog farmer or anything else, your work brings glory to God. Just like the workers on the Tabernacle, understand that you have the chance to honor your Creator and give it all you got!
PRAY: Thank God for the giftedness he’s given you, whatever it may be, and commit to giving it your all to bring him glory.
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