By Scott Wetzel
‘Caesar’s,’ they replied.
He said to them, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s’.” Luke 20:24-25 (NIV)
My wife and I have a baby daughter. I know she’s ours. She has my eyes and my wife’s mouth. She does things that remind me of me sometimes and other times she reminds me of my better half. When people look at her, we never know if they are going to say she looks like me or if she looks like my wife.
But it’s obvious she’s ours.
She doesn’t look like anyone else in the world but us right now.
She HAS to be ours, right?
The sad fact I’m trying to deal with right now is that she’s not ours. She’s on loan for a time. Eventually we have to give her up. Eventually she’ll leave us and be lent to someone else for awhile. We might have influence, but we will no longer have control. God will have a whole different role for us.
I love how Jesus responds to the Pharisees when talking about taxes. It’s strange and distant. It’s almost as if He’s not talking about taxes. And I’m camping on the idea that He’s not. They ask Him what we need to pay and He shows them a coin engrained with the image of a leader. The person that runs the country is etched into the coin so it’s unmistakable where that coin eventually needs to go.
Our daughter might look like my wife and me, but ultimately she’s made in the image of God. She’s stamped with His likeness before ours. There is a part of me that’s sad about that but it also puts a greater responsibility on us to make sure she’s taken care of. I have to begin to realize that God doesn’t give us our children or significant others. He lends them to us. We have to be willing to say “God, I’ll take care of this for You for as long as You would have me do it.” When His image is stamped on it, it’s His.
Eventually we have to let go.
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