Devotion for Week of August 5, 2007

As some of you who read this blog already know, I have a small collection of old comic strip books such as Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Garfield, and The Far Side. I often flip through them when I am stuck for a sermon idea or a devotion. This week was no different and I came across this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

Calvin says to Hobbes, "If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?" Hobbes is seen thinking hard and Calvin says, "Anything at all! What ever you want!" Hobbes finally answers, "A sandwich."

Calvin is then seen yelling, "A sandwich? What kind of stupid wish is that? Talk about a failure of imagination! I'd ask for a trillion billion dollars, my own space shuttle, and a private continent!"

The last frame of the cartoon shows Hobbes eating a sandwich while he says, "I got my wish."

Have you ever wanted some ability that someone else had? We often do that, but it is not necessary. Maybe we are just like the worker in the Gospel of Matthew who received only one talent. The servant with one talent did not have as much as the servant with five talents, but he still had all he needed. If he had not buried his talent in the ground, he could have done great things with it.

All of us are gifted, and all those gifts come from God. All of us have what we need to succeed. God has created us differently so that different tasks will get done in this world. And all of us have a place where we fit in. So maybe when we do not think we are successful, we just need to change our idea of what success is to match God’s.

But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. (Matthew 25:18)