“Make vows to the Lord your God, and perform them; let all who are around him bring gifts to the one who is awesome…” (Psalm 76:11)
A few years ago, a friend of mine posted an update on Facebook that said something the effect that he was playing volleyball and was proudly displaying his Bob Ross t-shirt. I immediately responded by saying how jealous I was that he had a Bob Ross t-shirt. And I might have jokingly asked for one.
For the uninitiated, Bob Ross is a painter that had a show on PBS several years ago (”The Joy of Painting”) and his goal was to encourage anyone to take up a brush and canvas and give painting a shot. He passed away in 1995, but the Bob Ross phenomenon lives on. He was a bit kitschy, but there was also something about his demeanor that just helps soothe the most frazzled of nerves.
Anyway, a few days after I posted that comment on my friend’s Facebook update, I got a surprise package in the mail. David had ordered and mailed me a t-shirt. It was an unexpected and lovely gesture and I proudly wear it today.
I wrote last week about the need to express gratitude and we certainly need to have that state of heart in our relationship with God. But how do we express it? I will say “thank you” in my prayers or it might come out in a song I sing, but it generally doesn’t get terribly creative. Like my friend’s unexpected and generous gift, perhaps we, too, should express our love toward God in an unexpected and generous way. What would that look like for you? It could be a tangible gift or a creative way of praying, but I’d like to think that God would be thrilled with a surprise expression of gratitude. How might you surprise God this week?