The parable of the talents always strikes me as one that always needs another look. I say that because we often seem to fall into our own patterns of thinking and assume that God thinks like us; and we seem to continually compare ourselves with others. When we say it out loud, of course it sounds silly to ever do such a thing, but do it we do. For instance, while the parable does say that the talents were distributed to each one according to the person’s ability, we automatically assume that this means that the one who was most capable received the most talents and so on and so on. But how do we know that’s the way God distributes the talents? How do we know that God does not distribute the most “talents” to those with the least ability instead of the other way around? After all, is it not possible that perhaps, God may feel that those who have the least ability might need special help from Him? Isn’t it possible to think that God ultimately wants the same yield from each of us and so He distributes the talents accordingly? Who is to say that the Lord does not expect the same return from those among us who seem to have the least amount of talent as He expects from those with the most? Maybe He gives less talents to those who have the greatest ability because in His mind they need them less than do those who have less ability. If that is the case, what about those of us who assume, after comparing ourselves with others, that we have very little talent and therefore God is not expecting much of us, and so we bury our talents in the sand? What do we say to the Lord when He says to us, that we had much more ability in His eyes than others who used their talents to accomplish much more than we did? The truth of the matter is that God rightfully expects a bountiful yield from each of us. The greatest tragedy would be that we would compare ourselves to others and bury our God given gifts in the sand.
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