with strings attached

on occasion ive heard people say things like, "sam can be generous, but watch out because his gifts always have strings attached." you know, like your gran'mama buys you a coupon for movie tickets, but now she expects you to take her and then you have to massage her toe-bunions after the show.

i bought into the notion that such gifts are essentially poisoned, and that it also says something about the manipulating nature of the gift-giver. however, i have recently changed this view (for self-serving purposes, of course). mainly ive discovered that when i give gifts...i too have strings attached.

i did a painting and gave it to someone a year ago. when i would go to their house, i would as inconspicuously as possible (more like "wheres the painting i gave you?"), look for it. it started out being prominently displayed in their living room above their tv. then, the next time it wasnt there, i peeked around the house until i saw it in the corner of their bedroom. then...the next time i went to see if it was still in the bedroom. it wasnt. it didnt appear to be anywhere. needless to say this bothered me some. either they didnt like it or didnt get that it took over 20 hours to complete. "this is not right" i thought "they should have displayed it in a prominent place for all to see my wonderful masterpiece". and those, of course, were my particular set of strings. in the end, its hard to say how much of the gift was about me and my talent and how much was truly about giving.

the whole thing got me thinking though...dont all gifts have strings attached? we want the person to like it, use it, and maybe even thank us for it...well those are the strings. if we gave a gift to someone for Christmas only to have it re-gifted to us the following year for our birthday, we would see our strings appear. a man gives and engagement ring to a woman...expectations (strings) are attached.

this may not be as bad as it sounds. i think God's gifts have strings attached too. afterall, arent blessings meant to be noticed, appreciated, and used to good benefit; not ignored, discarded or returned?