Jesus, like the U.S. Army, urges you to be "All that you can be."

Saturday, 8/30/13

Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel presents us with three of Our Lords parables, with each of them being fifteen verses long, and through each of them, Our Lord tells us of the necessary behavior that must be ours if we want to be saved.

In yesterday’s parable of the five wise and five foolish maidens, under the image of oil for for our lamps, Jesus told us we must have an obedient love for God when he calls on us.

In today’s parable Jesus used the heavy Roman gold coins called talenta to be images of the gifts and abilities given us at birth. When he comes to judge us he will reward us if through study and persevering labor we have made the best of our abilities.

If you don’t mind, I would like to relate an experience I had that deepened my thinking on the matter of developing our talents. Twenty-five years ago we all laughed when a sixth grade girl asked, “If we are all made in God’s image, how come some people are left handed?”

I woke up that night, realizing that the girl’s question was a version of a deeper question. She was really asking: “How can we all be like God when we are so different from one another?”

Searching for an answer to that one, I came up with an answer, which isn’t from the Bible, but somehow seems right to me. My answer to how we can all be like God when we are so different from one another is this: we can picture God as a many-faceted diamond, with each of us mirroring a different one of his facets.

We are not born mirroring a facet of God. Each of us is born only with the potential of mirroring a different facet of his beauty, power and goodness. (It's like the way a dug-up uncut diamond resembles noting but a dirty rock.)

The Army advertizes that you should, “Be all that you can be.” That is what Jesus is telling you with his parable of the talents. By fully developing and polishing all your talents you will come to mirror God in a way no one else can.