Living Monstrance

A few years ago, I was riding a bus to work in the early morning, and it was crowded. I was sitting in one of the front seats of the bus, one of the side rows that faces into the main aisle. Well, at one stop, a woman got on, and, trying to be polite, I got up and offered her my seat. “Oh, thank you,” she replied, and she took my seat. I continued to stand, thinking it’s good for me because I’ll be sitting most of the day at the office anyway.

Well, several stops later, the man sitting next to her got up to get off the bus. Then the woman did something amazing.

So kindly, she moved over to the guy’s old seat, and offered me back my original seat. I couldn’t believe it. It was such an unexpected and moving gesture. So, I took my old seat back, and we sat together and talked a bit until she got off. I thought, what a privilege to be next to such a person. I’ll never forget it.

Why did she do that? I think it’s because she appreciated the giver more than the gift. Why do I think that? Because she was willing to give up the gift to be with the giver.

What inspired the disciples to leave all the good gifts God had given them and follow Jesus? What moved them to give back to God their families, their careers, their possessions?

They appreciated the Giver more than the gifts.

And so they got to be next to Him, they got to be with Him and speak with Him. They got to be with the Son of God Himself and form a bond with Him that He never forgot. They got a share of His Life: eternal life.

The Lord offers us His seat along the way of life. He offers us the gift of His place. He gives us all His best things: our family, friends, possessions, career. It’s great to receive all these things, He’s very pleased when we do.

But there’s a problem. When we keep those things for ourselves, we can’t be next to Him. But if we offer them back to Him, we get even better:

We get Him.

“And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19:29)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Luminous, Serving Others, Work & Career. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.