“For whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” (JST Matt. 13:10–11). When Job heard the news that everything he had, all of his wealth and his cattle and even his children were gone, he said “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). How was Job able to stoically accept having everything taken from him and still find it in him to bless the name of the Lord? I think we can find the answer all the way at the end of the book. “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.” (Job 42:12). Job had abundance at the end of his life because he never stopped receiving from the Lord. Yes, in a very dark time in his life, Job had everything taken away from him. To lose absolutely everything in a single afternoon is hopefully something that few of us have to share with Job, but it is inescapable that we will ultimately experience the exact same amount of loss as Job, just hopefully a little more spread out. Everything we have ever been given will be taken from us. Whether it gets lost or stolen, broken or obsolete, rusted or rotted, the sparkle will fade and we will be left only with memories of how much we loved a thing when first we received it, and how sorry we are that we can’t go back to that first moment when all was new and perfect and glorious. If we allow ourselves to wallow in self-pity that what we once loved has been taken from us, or if we try to hold onto something past its expiration date, then we have turned our backs on abundance, and are left instead to watch everything that ought to have been taken from us crumble and disintegrate until we have nothing left. The present is a gift is not just a bad pun. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9). It is a wrench to give up the things we know and love, but if we will just continue to receive, then every day God will give us things more wonderful than that which gets taken away. Scarcity and nothingness await all who stop receiving, but for all of us who have the humility to let go of old things and continue in receiving, we shall receive more and more, until the day when we receive all that the Father has.
