Are You Bringing God Your Scraps?

A very dear and busy lady in our church loved giving what she could, including her time, and was diligent to see that everyone's needs were taken care of.

Like most Baptist churches, we loved to have pot luck dinners. We had them for every occasion and if there wasn't an occasion, we invented one.

So, it was on a certain Sunday, at the red brick church down the street from the post office, a bountiful dinner would be served when the worship service was over. This dear lady rushed around very early Sunday morning preparing a casserole. She covered it carefully with foil and set it on her cabinet while she finished preparing for church. She was running late so rushing out the door, she grabbed the casserole, her bible and purse and hurried to the car thinking all the while that people would be so pleased to see their favorite casserole among the dishes served.

The final "A-men" was said and everyone gathered in the fellowship hall. The men stood around visiting; the kids were peering at the cakes and pies at one end of the table while the ladies bustled around setting out their contributions of food and uncovering them. As the dear lady uncovered her dish, she was horrified to discover that in her rush , she had picked up the bowl of scraps she had put into an identical bowl over the last few days.

As I recalled this incident, I wondered how many times we rush off to God's house bringing Him the scraps. We are so busy tending to our own and others needs that we fail to bring our very best to Him. I'm reminded of the story of Moses leading the Children of Israel out of the wilderness. God promised to provide manna for their needs daily telling them not to worry about gathering the leftovers. Did they trust Him to provide? Do we gather up the leftovers in our lives and bring them to Him?

"The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren’t short—each person had gathered as much as was needed. Moses said to them, 'Don’t leave any of it until morning.' But they didn’t listen to Moses. A few of the men kept back some of it until morning. It got wormy and smelled bad. And Moses lost his temper with them." Exodus 16:18-20 The Message