Thursday, January 8

Making Wealth (and Apple Pie)

You may say in your heart, "My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth." But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth. ~Deuteronomy 8:17-18
One day, not long ago, I received a completely unexpected but very appreciated monetary gift. I was rather overwhelmed with all the ways that God provides, and then I came to my computer and this was the verse-of-the-day on my sidebar! God certainly wanted me to really "get" this point: there is nothing I can give Him that isn't already His. No matter what I do, no matter what kind of wealth I acquire, it all comes from the hand of God. He made the earth I live on, He made the sun that warms it, He made the universe in which it sits, and He made little ol' me. Anything I acquire is because He allowed it, He gave me the skills, abilities, power, health, and so on that I use to do anything and everything.

I love this quote (by Carl Sagan):
"In order to make apple pie from scratch,
you must first create the universe."

Doesn't that put it all in perspective? Even the smallest of things I do--like baking a pie--are only possible because God created everything I needed, and then allowed me the honor of doing it.

I think I need to go bake something now, and ponder the scope and size of the universe and the Creator of it all...