Golden Earrings

from: The Little Book of Kitchen Table Wisdom

by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

"The year he went bankrupt, my father bought me a pair of elegant real gold earrings. Opening the box they came in, I had stared at them in a thirteen-year-old's silence, bewildered, feeling the weight of my homeliness, my shyness, my hopeless difference from my classmates who easily joked and flirted and laughed. 'Aren't you going to try them on?' asked my father, so I took them to my room and put them on my ears. Cautiously I looked in the mirror. My pimply face and lank hair looked much as always. The earrings looked absurd.

"Tearing them from my ears I rushed back into the living room and flung them on the floor. 'How could you do this?' I shrieked at my father. 'I'm too ugly to wear them. How could you waste all that money?' Then I burst into tears. My father said nothing until I had cried myself out. Then he passed me his clean, folded handkerchief. 'I know they don't suit you right now,' he said quietly. 'I bought them because someday they will suit you perfectly.'

"My adolescence was a time of profound self-doubt. At some of the darkest moments, I would get out the earrings and look at them. My father had spent a hundred dollars he did not have because he saw the person I would become in time. He believed in that person, and this made all the difference."

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This reminds me of a similar story. Someone I know paid a great price so he could give his child a gift, knowing that his child had the potential to become a person suited to that gift.

"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.."

Hebrews 12:1-2

"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ... For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Romans 8:15-17, 24-25

If you'll forgive me for borrowing some of Dr. Remen's words:

"I know it doesn't suit you right now," says the Father. "I know you're not worthy of salvation. But I paid for it anyway, because someday it will suit you perfectly." ... My Father paid the ultimate price, because He sees the person I will become in time. He believes in that person, and that makes all the difference.

Let us not forget that it is not because of who we were, or even who we are now, that our beloved Father gives us gifts. Let us instead remember that He has given us everything, knowing that we will become the people worthy to possess those gifts.