WE ALL HAVE SPECIAL GIFTS – NO NEED TO ENVY OTHERS – Don Hanley’s blog #58

I was looking forward to seeing Julie and her new smile and discussing our gifts as I walked around my 21^st-century world. I am happy to learn that we, here in our country, will (hopefully) have an energetic, thoughtful, and joyful woman president. I want to be able to explain this to my first-century Nazarene friends easily, but it would take too long and distract them from what is more critical: Julie’s surgery and recovery and their love for one another.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to wait long. I arrived right after the evening meal, and Julie looked good two days after her surgery. Her upper lip was swollen and red, but she could smile wonderfully. I hobbled over and kissed her forehead, and she opened her arms. Ruth and Mary seemed to give me a warmer smile than usual. Joshua looked like the proud papa who even performed the miracle operation. He said, “Newsome does have a gift for performing surgery. I hope Ruth’s admonition may have helped him become more human. I think he did smile a time or two before he left.” John and Paul nodded, and John added. “I think there is a heart in there somewhere.”

I looked at Mary and said, “Yes, we discussed being gifted. And I think your son Jesus was, or is, gifted with a powerful ability to understand himself and others more deeply than, perhaps, anyone in the history of humanity. And Mary, how early in his life did you realize how gifted he was?”

“I think I realized it before he was born, but perhaps all new mothers feel this way. He smiled a lot the first day, I think, and Joseph was holding him the first week, and Jesus laughed.”

I added, “I just read that a tribe of Native Americans in my homeland, named Navajos, date the birth of their babies as the day he or she laughs for the first time. The laugh is a sign that the baby is wholly human. Ruth, I hope you helped Dr. Newsome become more human.” Joshua, Mary, John, and Paul laughed. 

John said, “And back to gifts, I was very pleased when Jesus told me that I had a gift of easily connecting with people, and earlier in my life, my mother said I had a gift for languages and writing. Paul, what are some of your gifts?”

“I never thought of my abilities that way, but it is a good way of understanding ourselves. Like you, John, I have a gift for languages, I guess, because I can read and speak Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and Hebrew. And I can write some of each, which I am thankful for. And John, I have a question for you, I heard from someone that Peter, the fisherman, was chosen by Jesus to be the leader of his apostles. Is that true?”

John rubbed his chin and said, “I guess you could say that. Peter was the group's oldest member and seemed to be a good leader. Just before the Romans dragged Him off, he asked Peter to see that we had stayed together and deepened our connection. And I believe that Peter does have a gift of leadership.”

As they were talking, I thought that the followers of Jesus lost some of their giftedness when they began to emphasize what Jesus said and what they thought he wanted rather than developing their common gift of becoming more radiantly loving people. And with that, I disappeared. So now…

Please look at your giftedness, nurture them, and put more energy into them than you do in the words of your menu and add them to your gifts in your banquet.