I confess that these chapters of Exodus make my head swim.  There is a reason the Lord did not lead me to a profession as an architect!  It is hard work for a person as spatially challenged as I am to read these verses and make any sense of them.  However, I realized as I plowed through these chapters describing the plans for building the Ark, Table, Lampstand, Tabernacle, and Courtyard that each of these items for worship were to be built precisely with the BEST the people had to offer: the best cloth, the finest colors, the strongest wood, the purest gold and bronze, the most beautiful jewels.

Even though today the Lord does not call us to build a tabernacle in the desert, doesn’t He still call us to worship him with our best?

Do I bring Jesus my all as I wake each morning?  Or do I hurriedly bring him a quick thanks before running myself ragged?  Does the Lord get all my heart during worship, or is part of my mind somewhere else – contemplating all the laundry waiting for me at home or the dinner I need to cook or the homeschool materials I need to prepare?  He deserves the finest, most excellent praise and worship I am capable of bringing…not my cast-offs polluted with worry and lack of faith.

I admit, I am not always able to bring him my best.  I am weak.  Anxiety grips me by the throat, and the chest pain crushes my heart and weakens my spirits.  But the Holy Spirit working in me can intercede for me.  Paul writes about this very thing in Romans 8:

²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers^[l] in harmony with God’s own will.

And so I lift up my heart to Jesus, presenting him with my love…my sacred offering.