Firsts

Firsts. Today was a day of firsts. We had a soccer game this morning with the U5 team my son plays on. We have eight players on the team and only three play at a time. All eight players were able to score a goal today, three of them scored a goal for the first time this year. Our best player, who could have scored twenty goals himself, was very unselfish by getting the ball to the goal and letting the other players score. I’ve never seen a four year old be so concerned about his teammates. It was an awesome show of putting others before yourself and a four year old helped us to remember that.

Then, this afternoon, the very first friend I ever had in my life posted pictures of one of her birthday parties and tagged me in the post. It was so awesome to go back to those days and remember first friends like that, especially when you haven’t seen them in almost 30 years. We remember the things that happened in our lives that were “firsts”. They tend to stand out so vividly in our minds. “Firsts” are important to us and they are to God.

“Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce” - Proverbs 3:9. God wants the best of what we have. He wants us to bring to Him the firstfruits of our lives. He doesn’t want what is leftover, like an afterthought, He wants the best. He wants to be first and foremost in what we give to Him. He wants to know that we see Him as the most important part of our lives. When we give Him what we have left, we show Him that what we want is more important to us than what He has commanded us to give.

“Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” - James 1:18. The Bible describes believers as Christ’s firstfruit. Christ, himself, is also described as the firstfruit of the Resurrection as a promise that we too will be resurrected when the time comes. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” - 1 Corinthians 15:20.

Just like we remember the things in our lives that were “firsts”, God wants to be first in all that we do and say.

Have a great day and God bless.