For the last couple days, the Old Testament reading in the Daily Office has focused on the story of King David and his affair with Bathsheba. Of course, most of us know that tale —just as most of us know the clever way in which the prophet Nathan confronts David about his sin, which is the focus of today’s reading (2 Samuel 12:1-14). However, there is a line in this drama that catches my attention and that invites us to a little introspection. Speaking through Nathan, the LORD says this:

I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more (emphasis added). Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?

2 Samuel 12:7-9

Now, I don’t know how you hear those words. But they speak to me of a Heavenly Father who deeply desires to give good gifts to His children — but whose plans are frequently frustrated by their sin and by their refusal to walk in the way that leads to blessing.

Most of us are at least vaguely aware, I think, of the way that sin can deprive us of blessing as a result of the direct consequence of our actions. We lie, and a relationship is destroyed. We overindulge, and we suffer physically. We gossip, and a circle of friends is thrown into chaos. But how often do we stop to think about the blessings that could have come — to ourselves and to others — if we had offered our lives more completely to the God who “would have given even more” — if only we had been ready to receive?

In one of his letters to his protege Timothy, the Apostle Paul says this:

In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.

2 Timothy 2:20-21 (The Message)

Today, let us be holy – just as our Father in Heaven is holy. And may there be no blessing missed, as we offer Him the kind of lives that He can use for His glory.