GIVING
A RAIN GAUGE

Topics: Anniversaries; Giving; God; Worship

References: Psalm 95:6; John 4:23–24; Hebrews 12:28–29

Early in our marriage, I gave my wife a terrific anniversary gift. At least I thought it was a great gift. Susan, after all, is a farmer’s daughter and keeps close watch on the weather. I envisioned her delight and nostalgia while tracking our backyard precipitation on her new rain gauge.

Susan was not impressed. “A rain gauge for our anniversary?” she asked incredulously. The gauge is now a family joke, a classic example of a gift enjoyed by the giver but not the receiver.

One word I hear a lot these days is authentic, as in “We seek authentic worship.” Usually this means we’re trying to create an experience that helps worshipers feel something. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if our focus is only on our experience, we may be giving God a rain gauge.

A real gift, real worship, means knowing what’s important to the Receiver.

—Marshall Shelley, Leadership (Spring 1999)