After the gifts had been opened on Christmas afternoon last year and my girls waded through the torn paper and ribbons, my uncle pulled me aside and asked me a question.
“Did we get her the right thing?” he wondered about the Barbie surfing set my three-year-old had unwrapped.
Barbie hasn’t changed: with to-her-neck tanned thighs and long blonde hair. These are the same dolls that I’d avoided buying my daughters for fear of a warped sense of self and an expectation of a 20 inch waist with a 40 inch bust when they develop someday.
However, for the past couple years, Barbies have been showing up in my house as gifts for birthdays and Christmases and lately my three-year-old has one tucked under her little arm wherever she goes.
We have Barbies in the car. Barbies in the back yard playhouse. Barbies under my bed and Barbies in the shower.
“Of course you did. See?” and I point him toward Naomi who had already enlisted my father to free Surfing Barbie from her plastic bonds. My daughter was carrying Barbie with her cardboard surfboard and bikini around the living room proudly showing her off to the rest of the toys, penguins snuggled in their arctic feathers and stuffed bears in bad Christmas sweaters.
And she’ll probably play with that doll until a) Barbie’s head falls off and disappears to the same place in the dryer that all the left socks go to, b) She becomes a bath toy and suffers the disease of Mildew In The Hair, or c) She becomes a naked chew toy for our new Golden Retriever, Flower.
Needless to explain further to my uncle, Naomi loves her little dolls and the Barbie was the perfect gift.
When preschool resumed in January, I picked up the leftover construction paper poinsettias and various Christmas crafts that had collected in Naomi’s cubbie. In the mix was a cardboard Christmas present addressed to Jesus with colored paper, a gift tag and a bow. On the back it read (in the perfect handwriting of her preschool teacher) “I would give Baby Jesus a Barbie and a butterfly. Naomi, 2009”
Her favorite things. Her most treasured things. The things that she can’t live without.
She offered them to Jesus.
Her best things.
Not her leftovers, or her sister’s toys. She presented Him with the best things she could possibly offer, in a preschooler’s world.
And I wonder if I give Him my best. My most favorite. The things I tuck under my arm and walk around all day with. Do I give Christ the most treasured things I own, the things that belong to Him anyway?
All Jesus wants is a Barbie. At least from a three-year-old.
And from me? He wants the finest that I have, the first I earn, the sweetest and most precious things in my heart. He wants my first hour, my best concentration, and my most prized talents and gifts.
He wants it all.
by Sarah Markley, The Best Days of My Life
ABOUT SARAH MARKLEY
I'm the mother of two little girls, the wife of an amazing husband who'd rather play the guitar than anything else and I love to write. I spend my weekends watching my daughters ride horses and play...
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Sarah, I love this. What does He want from us? Just our all and everything. Thank you.
Sarah, I love this. What does He want from us? Just our all and everything. Thank you.
Powerful. Beautiful. Truth. I read from Job this morning in my Bible in 90 Days challenge … and was reminded of this great God who has given us every thing … and what He wants in return is all … all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, all my strength. I wonder sometimes why it is that I hold back from Him … I do know that He is trustworthy, loving, faithful and yet I hold on to my Barbies & butterflies as if somehow I can do more with them than He. Only in giving Him everything ~ the good, the bad, the precious, the ugly, all of it ~ can I find the peace that everything else never seems to bring. Thank you, Sarah, for once again presenting truth.
Powerful. Beautiful. Truth. I read from Job this morning in my Bible in 90 Days challenge … and was reminded of this great God who has given us every thing … and what He wants in return is all … all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, all my strength. I wonder sometimes why it is that I hold back from Him … I do know that He is trustworthy, loving, faithful and yet I hold on to my Barbies & butterflies as if somehow I can do more with them than He. Only in giving Him everything ~ the good, the bad, the precious, the ugly, all of it ~ can I find the peace that everything else never seems to bring. Thank you, Sarah, for once again presenting truth.
Zing!
Right to the heart.
Yes!!!!
My grandfather and I agree 100%.
(See link.)
Wow.
I’m crying because I needed to hear this today.
Thank you Sarah.
simply beautiful. this spoke to me today. may this be my desire everyday to give Him my all. thank you Sarah.
Out of the mouths of babes. In their innocence they speak the truth and so often show us, the very ones that should be teaching them, how we should be living or what we should be doing. Thank you for the reminder that God does want our all, the best of everything. Why should we hold back, God gave us His best: JESUS
Your words went straight to my heart and brought tears of shame because I don’t give my best to Him
OH! Your little one’s heart!! Mine does not offer my best – more my leftovers. thank you for speaking truth!
WOW! This was a powerful post for me and something I needed to see and thnk about. I want to give HIM my best too! Thanks so much! XO, Pinky
What a sweet reminder and picture to all of us! Thank you for sharing your daughter’s sweet heart
This is so touching. Thank you. :)
Thank you! This really touched me! So often I don’t see anything wrong with offering Him “leftovers” – as to my time for instance. You helped me remember that it’s about a love-relationship where I give Him my best. He deserves nothing less! Amazing how often God speaks through children… I wanna be like this child agan – truly loving and extravagantly generous!
i love this post. It is exactly what I needed today!
As a grandmother who has given untold numbers of Barbies as gifts, this touched my heart to the core. Thank you so much!
Such a privilege to meet you at Blissdom. Thanks for another beautiful post.
Love, LOVE this. So precious and such a wonderful lesson… from a 3 year old. :)
speechless…..
We must learn to treasure life, every day.
I’M MOVED….ED
Thank you for sharing your daughter’s sweet heart