Your Money Is No Good Here

My Dad tells a story about me. When we were little (2nd Grade) we went to Europe. My Dad had taught us the rudiments of every language; please, thank you, I don't speak the language - that sort of stuff. We reached the small Bavarian village of Garmish Partenkirken up in the Bavarian Alps and stayed in a little inn at the end of a valley. There was a little store across the street that sold postcards and ice creams and things like that. My Dad handed me some German Franks and told me to go over and get some ice cream. This was going to be a test of my ability to handle a transaction in a foreign country. I wasn't fearless, I just didn't know any better.

I went across the street, pointed to the ice cream I wanted, and said Einz, Bitte. (One, please). The shop owner very graciously picked up the ice cream and handed it to me and then quoted me the price. I handed him the money. And then the German Shop Owner started speaking to me in fluent German. I didn't have a clue what he was saying. I just stood there, stunned, hoping for something that made sense.

My Dad had been watching me from the window and quickly realized that something was wrong. He ran across the street to the store and suddenly realized that his own 3rd Grade Level German wasn't going to cut it. He couldn't understand what the man was trying to say either.

Finally, a tourist came along who could translate and he explained that the money I had was old. The currency had changed since the 72 Olympics when my Dad had been there last. In short, my money was no good there.

I was thinking of this the other day when I realized that what money we had, and what we did with that money, was all just a big test. My Dad could have easily gone across the street and bought the ice cream for me, but he knew that I would never learn to trust my abilities to converse in any language if I didn't try it on my own. Spending the money was just a test. And so it is with God. God doesn't need money. He owns everything. He can create anything. Money to God is like the points on Whose Line Is It Anyway - it doesn't matter. He uses it to test us. He uses it to see what we will do with it. It is a character test. It is a patience test. It is a test of our faith.

We all like to pay attention to the first half of the scripture, Render Unto Caesar, What Is Caesar's... it justifies our having to pay taxes and other burdensome issues and keeps us from sacking and pillaging Halliburton and Exxon/Mobil. But there is another half to the message, Render Unto God, What Is God's. He owns us too. Money means nothing to Him, but we are His most important possessions. And we should give ourselves to our creator.