The Unwanted Gift

The Unwanted Gift

I love fishing and would love to buy my wife a really nice fishing rod.

I can just see her now opening up that gift;

the expression on her face.

NO!!! Not an expression of pleasure

but an expression of, ‘what are you thinking’?

Sandy enjoys the fact that I love fishing,

but it is not her thing.

So if I want to please her,

I need to find out what she likes.

And it works the same way with God.

Sandy – when we were dating in 1971.

 This is how she dressed when I took her fishing.

Do you think I should have had a clue that she was not going to be a fisherwoman?

Eating from the Tree of Knowledge produced a lot of drama.

The knowledge of good and evil

is very evident in the first family.

There is joy for mom and dad

as Eve gives birth to two sons.

The blessing of joy is turned into a curse of sorrow

when the oldest son Cain becomes angry and depressed.

Ever got a gift for someone because you liked it,

only to find out that they didn’t like the gift.

That is just what happened

when Cain offers God fruit he had grown.

Growing things from the ground

was what Cain did and what he loved.

So for God not to accept Cain’s offering,

must have been devastating.

The emotional anger is intensified

when Cain sees that his younger brother

has made an offering of animals he has raised

and God is pleased with that offering.

Cain tried to give God a gift based on what he liked.

Many people have done the same thing.

We want God to want and like the same things we want.

Maybe this is why the Bible says,

“God’s ways are not our ways.”

“His thoughts are not our thoughts.”

Cain was the first, but not the last,

to become offended at God because

God did not want it their way.

It is not always easy for us to understand

what God wants when we view things through the lens

of who we are and what we like.

Cain looked at God through the lens of a man

who works the ground;

an agricultural farmer.

God isn’t against agricultural farmers.

In fact, that was the job God gave Cain’s father,

and Jesus used agriculture illustrations

to teach truths about His Kingdom.

Maybe Cain is like many of us,

who have heard too many

Burger King commercials,

“Have it your way.”

 

So maybe we should seek God

to find out what He wants

before we give Him a gift.

Scripture Reading

Genesis 4:1-5 NIV

4:1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.

She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man."

2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.

3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil

as an offering to the LORD.

4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.

The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.

So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.