Read: Psalm 139:13-16; Psalm 95:6-7
Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. (Ps. 95:6 NIV)
Juan, one of our Bible school students, invited us to a birthday party for their two-year-old son. We gladly agreed to come and celebrate with them.
When all the guests had arrived at his home, Juan stood and said: “God has given us our son. He is a handsome child and is healthy. When he has been sick, God has healed him. I have invited you here to join us in thanking God for him, and to celebrate his two years of life. I would like one of you to give us a message from God’s Word, and someone to lead us in singing and in praising God.”
After the service of thanksgiving and praise, Juan and his wife served each of us a cup of corn gruel and a corn tostado. We returned home that evening with full hearts. We had celebrated the goodness and watchful care of the “Giver of Life.”
I thought about how different the birthday parties were that we had celebrated in the U.S. How strange, I thought, that at those birthday parties, we honor the one who has received God’s blessing of life, instead of honoring God, the Giver of Life. How did we get it so turned around? —Helen Hofman
As you pray, thank God, your maker, for the gift of life, and for fashioning you so wondrously in his image.
About the Author
Helen Hofman is a retired missionary. She and her husband Sam worked with the Tzeltal and Tojolabal Indians of Chiapas, Mexico for more than forty years. In their work, they helped set up a Bible School to train the Tzeltals, taught in the Bible School, prepared Sunday School materials, textbooks, hymnals and audiovisuals. They also coordinated the translation of the Amatenango Tzeltal New Testament and the revision of the highland Tzeltal Bible.
