Leftovers

Then Ornan said to David, “Take it; and let my lord the king do what seems good to him; see, I    present the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for a grain offering. I give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No; I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site. 1 Chronicles 21:23-25 (NRSV)

 

The property in question the Ornan wanted to give outright to King David became the land upon which Solomon, David’s son, built the Jewish Temple. This was a very important piece of property. You might say priceless. David, however, could not bear to give God something in which he had no investment, no skin in the game. No leftovers.

 

Ask yourself this. Do you give God leftovers? Time, things, and energy that are leftover from the “real” pursuits of life? God gets what is left at the bottom of the barrel, when all other options are dried up?

 

I find it pretty easy to think of God last, when all I have is leftovers.

 

God, gave his best, his only Son for us.