Claiming ownership

I recently heard something on the radio that was super interesting. There is apparently a woman in Spain who claimed that she owns the sun. She said that there is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals. So since it occurred to her first, she can claim ownership of the sun. Now she is planning to charge everyone a fee for using the sun... This sounds ridiculous right? When I first heard this, I thought it was a joke. This was absurd, who in their right mind could claim that they own the sun? I think everyone would agree with me that no one can own the sun. It is a gift that we all share.

This got me thinking though, how often do we make the same mistake? How many times have we tried to claim something as our own and not realizing that it is a gift? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that everything we have is a gift from God. This include our family, friends, jobs, our abilities, our spiritual gifts... A lot of times we take things like this for granted. They just become a part of who we are and we are no longer thankful for it. Sometimes we even begin to boast in our gifts because we think we deserve them and it is our right to boast in these. Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians:

"For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" 1 Corinthians 4:7

In other words, if what we have has been given to us, then how can we be boasting as if these weren't gifts? Now Paul wrote this in his letter to the church of Corinthians because the members of the church were having arguments about which spiritual gift was more important. Why were they arguing about this? I think it's because they started to take too much pride in their gift. I think this is a mistake we've all made in our life at one point or another. We all sometimes forget that our talents are a gift from God. Paul reminded the church firmly that all gifts are needed and they are all important (1 Corinthians 12:12). All the gifts are from the same Spirit and the spirit gives to each person what is fitting.

"All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills." 1 Corinthians 12:11

Paul further reminds us that if we were to boast, we need to boast in the Lord for He is the giver of our gifts.

"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 2 Corinthians 10:17

What does it mean to boast in the Lord? It means giving thanks and praising God for His gifts, His plans, and His majesty. God didn't have to give us any gifts, but He did, because He care about us and He wants to shower us with His gifts. But this doesn't mean we should become prideful in our gifts, instead, we need to receive with a thanksgiving heart and protect these gifts.