Where Are Your Leaves?

As I write this blog, it is almost tomorrow. I just came back from seeing the new movie 'The Odd Life of Timothy Green'. Warning: spoilers below! The movie involves a husband and wife who want more than anything to have a child, but can't. They begin to write down character traits for what they would want to see in their child, put them in a box, and bury it in their garden. That night a rain storm comes and through a miraculous event Timothy appears to them and becomes their son. They discover Timothy has an interesting "birthmark', leaves on his legs. Throughout the movie Timothy loses the leaves as he develops relationships with people, investing in their lives,  and self-sacrificing acts of service. Its not easy for him, as he has to let some experiences go in his life. I won't spoil the ending but it leaves you (no pun intended) with questions like "How can we make the most of the limited time we're given here on earth?" and "How can we build upon past relationships?"
As we read in Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:9, Christians will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of what we did with the time and gifts we were given here on earth.
The judgment seat of Christ is not a place where the Lord will give out punishment for sins committed by the child of God. Rather, it is a place where rewards will be given or lost depending on how one has used his or her life for the Lord. 

God graciously supplies the means by which we may serve Him. He works in us both to will and to do as we volitionally appropriate His grace (Phil. 2:12-13), but the decision to serve, and the diligence employed in doing so, is our responsibility and contribution and God sees this as rewardable.

 We each are given gifts and abilities to serve our Redeemer and Creator here on earth. We are like the seeds in John 12:24 that must fall to the ground and die (to our selfish desires) in order to bear fruit. Invest in treasures that will last eternally: people. Have any leaves fallen off you today? 


Verses to meditate on: 

Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Colossians 1:29 And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.