His offering was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering. Numbers 7:79
Twelve plates, twelve bowls, twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve male lambs, twelve goats, twenty-four oxen, sixty more rams, and sixty more male lambs - the people's complete offering consisted of these. Yet there is an individual and identical accounting of each leader's gift.
Now, my first thought in reading the same account twelve times is: How redundant! Why didn't Moses simply write it one time and say, "This is what each leader gave"? But as I consider the fact that all Scripture is directly inspired by the Spirit of God, there must be a reason for the redundancy.
The fact is: each account may seem identical, but they are not. Each leader is different. Each leader represented a tribe of Israel that was unique. Simply lumping them together discounts the truth - God sees each one of us as unique and special. Our gifts and offerings may seem just like someone else's, but God loves our uniqueness. He won't leave out any detail.
Lord, thank You for seeing ME - individually - when You look my way. You don't see one of many. You see each of us, uniquely, in amazing and loving detail. Lately, I have felt like merely one of the crowd in Your eyes. It is my perception, for sure, and not reality. The busyness - never feeling like I will accomplish anything of real purpose has left me feeling lonely and lost. Father, help me spend the day enjoying the most unique relationship of all. Help me to feel Your presence every moment today.