My youngest child, Tucker, turned four on October 30th, and for the first time, he had a children's birthday party. He decided on a "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme, and since I know how to decorate cakes, I thought I would make him one in the shape of that train.

However, it took me a total of five hours — time that I didn't really have in my schedule. The cake part was easy with a shaped pan, but the icing had to be dyed into six different colours, including red, black, and royal blue. I didn't have quite enough decorating equipment, so I had to keep washing things out when I changed icing colours. The details were very small, and it was hard to get the face right. I spent the entire afternoon hunched over the kitchen counter, trying painstakingly to recreate an edible Thomas.

Then, Tucker appeared in the kitchen and asked to see. I held him up so he could look at the finished product, and he gasped. "Mommy! It's Thomas, and you made him just for me! It's because you love me, isn't it!"

I think that sometimes we do church work and other volunteering the very same way. We start out meaning to do something special for God, but we end up rushing to fit in one more activity. We get absorbed in the task, which might not go as easily as planned. And then, it is all too easy to forget why we are doing what we're doing.

Our tasks — whether serving on a church committee, volunteering care for the elderly, or knitting mittens for the homeless — are not just acts to sustain an organization or to do someone a favour. They are sacred acts that express our devotion to the Lord of heaven and earth.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to remember that to serve You is an honour for each of us and a gift to You. Amen.

In January of this year, I was encouraged by my doctor to get more exercise, so I joined the community recreation centre. I have been swimming three times a week, and incidentally, am enjoying the many benefits of regular physical activity.

However, swimming pools are remarkable places. I notice that a great many of the things that distinguish us from one another are left off the pool deck. Few people wear jewellery. If hair isn't slicked-back-wet, it is under a bathing cap — neither of which is an arrangement to appreciate one's cut, colour, or style. There are no regular clothes either, and the bathing suits we wear have to be mostly functional and tend to be rather plain. Add goggles and nose clips, and people barely resemble their everyday selves.

If we were to judge each other on appearance, many of the regular categories we might use are not applicable at the pool, except for body shape. At the poolside, bulges and sags and wrinkles and rolls are all remarkably visible.

I will confess my discomfort with such an environment. With my young, svelte, lifeguarding days long since gone, it is unnerving to be in a place that so openly exposes physical inadequacies. It is a place where I take comfort in God's word to Samuel in today's Scripture: "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."

God, it seems, understands the world differently than we do. Where we might see inadequacy because of things like addiction or poverty or mental illness or ethnicity or just our general outward appearance, God sees potential. God sees greatness that is simply undiscovered. God sees not just people to love, but people to choose for important service. God sees into hearts and minds, and in doing so, God sees gifts and possibilities.

Prayer: Lord, thank You that You look into our hearts and our minds. Help us to look into the hearts of others, that we all might discover our gifts and possibilities for serving You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.