I Am Honored

The LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

—Isaiah 60:19

Each year when the Academy Awards roll around, my friend Robbie throws a party. Themed food, a large television, and a house filled with friends and anticipation as we await the start of the big show. Adding to the drama, she creates a competition of sorts, with each person attempting to guess the various winners, the best dresses, the most memorable moments.

Although I’m not much of an Oscar watcher, I admit I’m easily caught up in the glamour. I imagine myself in a sequined dress with an expert updo and borrowed jewels. I wait for the announcer to say my name, winner of an award. Then when I hear it, I fake cry, relinquish my seat, and walk to the stage while soaking in the applause and affirmation of my peers.

Welcome to the fantasy world of a middle-aged woman. For the record, I’m fully aware this will never happen. But a girl can dream. What would it be like to be so honored? I can’t even get my children to mutter the occasional, “Thanks for the way you tirelessly work your arthritic fingers to a nub so we can have a life of ease.”

Not that I hold unrealistic expectations.

It’s sweet to be seen. To be honored for our contributions, with or without the sequined dress and jewels.

Several months ago, my third boy graduated from high school. Before the big day, we received an invitation in the mail.

“Senior Awards Ceremony,” it said. Our son had received some kind of award, and we were invited to the celebration.

The night was beautiful in many ways. Jacob, eighteen years old and looking forward to a future in the United States Air Force, received a Historian Award for his excellence in history. In addition, he received an engineering honor as well as other academic and athletic honors.

But it wasn’t the awards that made the evening wonderful. It was the backstory leading up to it.

In our two-plus decades as parents, my husband and I have been blessed with countless amazing teachers and administrators during our children’s school years. Including Jacob’s.

But among the many positive influences, there were a few who couldn’t see the potential we saw. Instead, they looked at our in-progress boy and saw a talkative, impulsive, bundle of too much energy. Many times, this tension made Jacob’s early school years tough and emotional. The hardest part? He knew. Even at five, seven, or twelve years old, he knew the teachers who didn’t like him, who couldn’t see the good in him. He felt their doubt and disapproval.

Then the Senior Awards Ceremony. And it turns out a little boy with excessive energy can grow up to be a young man with a sharp intellect. And an impulsive, talkative little boy can grow into an amazing leader ready to serve and change the world. Proof that what you see in your baby today is only a fraction of the man or woman they’ll become tomorrow.

As I watched him accept his award, as I blinked back tears and thought of both the naysayers and the cheerleaders, I couldn’t help but reflect that God alone is our biggest fan. Only God looks at our in-progress selves and sees a person worth honoring, regardless of her accomplishments.

You and I will likely never appear on the Oscar stage. I’ll never get a golden statue for doing an impressive stack of dinner dishes, and I’m far too old for any Senior Awards Ceremonies.

Unless, of course, it’s the Senior Living Facility Awards. But let’s not go there.

There’s an Oscar-worthy performance we’re a part of nonetheless. It’s called history and the redemption of mankind. From the beginning of time, God has set out to rescue His people. It’s a story of love lost, love pursued, love paid for, and love regained. You are a chief character in this story, the one the story’s hero gives His life for.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

No need for sequins or jewels. No need to work ourselves into exhaustion trying to merit a teacher’s recognition or achieve some kind of award.

I cannot fathom a love so great that God would crown me with “glory and honor” (Ps. 8:5). We couldn’t deserve such a gift. And yet He offers it just the same.

Take your place on the red carpet, honored one. You’re a child of the Most High God. And that’s a role worthy of far more than an Oscar.

I have every right to claim all for myself, knowing that an infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.

—A. W. TOZER, GOD’S PURSUIT OF MAN