Taxes, Kings and God's

Thinking/praying about what/if to post this morning I got a picture of a penny. Maybe that was just coming off yesterday's post, where I shared how I like my bills to line up. It's a darn good thing I don't have the same fetish about my coinage, or I'd constantly be at the 5-gallon bottle we throw our spare change into.

The above, by the way, is a now somewhat rare wheatback penny, and if you find any and don't save them yourself, you can send them my way.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the time the Pharisees and Herodians got together to trap Jesus with words by asking Him if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caeser. It occurs to me that this was a lot bigger question than just whether or not to pay taxes. (And wouldn't it have been nice if He'd said, "Nope, don't pay 'em!"?) But it likely was asked in light of the First Commandment and the dilemma for God-fearing Jews of whether it was idolatry to pay such homage to a King who also claimed to be a god.

Jesus in return asks, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" When they reply "Caesar's," His answer, of course, is "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's." (See Matthew 22:15-22).

It feels like in my "New Year's Revolution" the Lord is asking me, "Whose likeness and inscription do YOU bear, my child?" If my answer is His, then what am I to render unto Him? All of me? And again I say, define "all."