Making Beds

Yesterday I was reminded of how our loving, Heavenly Father, gives us the privilege of working together with Him. Does He actually need our help? No, but He allows, even encourages our help. Why? For the same reason He offers forgiveness of sin with promise of eternal life in Heaven to all who receive His Son, Jesus as Savior. The reason is love.

When I was a little girl I have memories of helping my mother make the beds. She saw me watching her. “Would you like to help?” she asked. Eagerly I smoothed out the bedspread. “Good job,” my mother praised me. When I became an adult I just knew that bedspread probably didn’t lay neatly on the bed. My mother laughed and said, “It wasn’t the neatest, but it was beautiful because you were helping me.”

If an earthly mother or father can feel that way and react with pleasure at our efforts, how much more does our Heavenly Father smile upon us when we give our best attempts in our obedience to Him? He never asks for perfection; an impossible goal for our imperfect selves. He looks upon the effort of heart. Why have we done what we do? Sense of duty or sense of worship in our love?

Man can only look at the outward appearance and see a disheveled made bed. God looks at the heart and sees a rumpled and crooked bedspread of love, and He is filled with pleasure. Whatever He has put in your heart today, do it with gladness. It’s always the effort that counts.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23