A few years back on the little hobby farm my family and I lived on we bought some chickens. The kids were so excited that they picked out names for each of the hens and the rooster. It wasn’t long before each of the hens starting producing eggs for our family to eat. My daughter Emma in particular couldn’t wait each morning to run down to the coop and retrieve the eggs to bring to me to cook for the kids for breakfast. One particular morning she ran out with the basket down to the coop. When she came back she was crying and sad. She had fallen with the basket and broke the eggs. I scooped her up and gave her a big hug and carefully removed the shells from the eggs. I then salvaged as much of the yolk and egg white as I could and cooked it in the pan. She was sad about the broken eggs, but I couldn’t have been more proud of her heart that simply wanted to please her father. It wasn’t perfect, but we were able to still have some eggs for breakfast.
I love worship music and I love to sing praises to God. I also know that I rarely can carry a tune for more than a couple of seconds. I hear people all around me during worship singing at my church and am amazed at some of the talent and praise offerings given to the Lord through singing. When I hear these amazing voices singing to the Lord I am both moved to worship and thankfulness and at the same time recognize my weaknesses in this area of worship. When I feel this way, I remind myself of that basket of eggs that Emma brought me. For her, it wasn’t much of an offering. For me, it was special. I was able to remove the shell from the yoke and take the part that was meant to be given as an offering from my child. If I can do this as a father, imagine how much more our Heavenly Father is able to remove our weaknesses and inabilities in worship and take right from the innermost parts of our heart. We have a tendency as humans to judge by what we see on the outside, but God isn’t like that. When Samuel was called to pick the first King of Israel God told him this, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (I Sam. 16:7) I want to encourage you to remember that God is pleased with your worship. God takes from a heart full of praise and receives that praise whether you have a natural musical gift or not. Bring your broken eggs to the Lord and He will be greatly praised!