Offerings

Though most of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali is a Hindu Island. The number of temples and offerings was astounding. Each village had it's own temple and each household also seemed to have a temple, some larger than others.


The sculpturing and architecture was amazing.


Flowers play a huge role in the prayers and offerings of the Balinese. Everywhere we looked there were flowers. Flowers growing, flowers being offered, flowers used in decoration.


These little baskets were everywhere - at the temples and on the sidewalks, in front of statues and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The women at the place we were staying would spend hours and hours making these little baskets. In fact, the one woman seemed to do nothing but that all day long. It gave me a lot to think about. On one hand, I am so deeply grateful that my faith allows me to come to God as I am, anytime, anywhere, without needing to prepare an offering of any sort. Yet the sheer beauty in the ritual of baskets of flowers being daily offered back to the One who created them touched something in my soul. My thoughts wondered one day as I sat on the porch, letting my eyes feast on the beauty all around me. A beautiful sacrifice was made for me long ago, so I would not need to perform sacrifices. By embracing this tradition of faith and grace, have we become prone to loose the beauty, the physical tangible beauty of offering what we have back to our Creator? I confess that, for me, the thought of sacrifice usually brings to mind tears and giving up of something that I really want, something painful rather than something beautiful. My mind wondered on and I was reminded of the Scriptures that tell us that our bodies are temples (which was pretty impressive after seeing the beauty that is carved into each Balinese temple) and that our prayers are like incense (again pretty impressive after spending the day stepping over little baskets of flowers topped with a stick of smoking incense on the sidewalks). I was challenged in a new way that my life itself is an offering, a beautiful living breathing fragrance when lived out of a soul that is reflecting the smile on the face of God. Some days it's hard to believe that the mess of my life could ever be as beautiful as all those offerings of flowers and fruit that I saw in Bali but then I hear His words, whispered in my soul and I am speechless.