Why I won't Trade my Daughter for Cows
I just returned from a mission trip to Kenya. While I was there, I was able to talk with my family a few times, via video chat on my phone. One afternoon, the 4-year-old son of the African missionaries we were serving happened to walk by while I was talking to my wife and my 4-year-old daughter, Gracie, on FaceTime. This missionary kid saw my daughter and stopped dead in his tracks. The two talked for a few minutes, completley interrupting my wife and I, and then my daughter ran off (4 year old girls are very busy).
The little boy stood there for a minute and then looked up at me and said, "Put the girl back on the phone."
Before I could say a word, my daughter heard the request and reappeared on the screen of my phone. The boy looked her straight in the eyes, blew her a kiss, and walked off. And then, my daughter, my 4 year old baby girl, blushed.
Some of the tribes in Africa require a dowry for a bride, and so the joke spread around Kenya that this little boy was going to offer me 300 cows & goats if he could marry my daughter.
I like this kid, but there aren't enough cows in the world...I mean, come on...she's 4.
It did make me think, though, of the one who loves my daughter more than I do. The one who gave more than a kiss. The one who offered more than cows for her heart. The one who saw the worth of a sinner, made in the image of God, as more valuable than 300 cows.
Jesus Christ didn't give goats for the hand of Gracie. He gave himself. Paul said Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25). John taught that Jesus laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16).
The church is the Bride of Christ, and the death of Christ is the sacrifice offered up for her. This is love demonstrated, proven, and it isn't meant to leave us blushing, but rather, more powerfully, more eternally impactful, it is meant to leave us free, betrothed to our Redeemer, one with Christ.
A herd of cows could never capture my daughter's heart, much less change it. She needs something more. We all do.
Praise the one who gave more; who gave all!
Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries and the Senior Pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of 44 nations located in Houston, TX. He and his wife are blessed with three wonderful children.
