Last spring I experienced a favorite parenting moment.
Such a privilege to give Esther her dream camera and lens. For no reason. Not her birthday, not Christmas, and she didn’t earn the money (or even half of the money)… I just got to buy and give this gift to her on a regular Wednesday night.
And she cried.
Esther has spent the last few years taking pictures of her high school sports teams. She’s logged literally hundreds of hours at practices and games, and ten times that many hours editing pictures. And then she sends all of those pictures to players and parents. She has set up and manages a couple of official school sports Instagram sites in an effort to promote the players and teams. All of this en route to her dream of sports broadcasting. The photography isn’t even her main goal, but she sees it as a path to help get her there.
Up to that evening last spring, Esther had built all of her photography on my old point-and-click Canon, a Costco purchase from literally before she was born. With that pretty basic camera she educated herself on aperture, manual settings, lighting, and then just went for it. As she was growing in her knowledge of photography, she started picking every professional photographer’s brain around her and solidified the specs of her dream camera.
So last winter all I’d been able to think about was getting her that camera. After watching Facebook Marketplace and Ebay, I bit the bullet and bought a used but really great camera and lens. And then I couldn’t even wait a day to give it to her. The minute I had both the camera and lens in my possession, I attached a couple of ribbons and set them in my closet. I lured her down to my room with an excuse to look at a piece of clothing in my closet, and she walked into the surprise.
On the little note left next to her camera, I wrote, “We can’t wait to see what you capture with this.”
. 
The biggest privilege of this whole thing for me, aside from watching her use this gift, will really be watching her use her gifts. Esther has completely uncovered and is developing this photography interest, which aligns with her love for athletics. When I met the professional photographer I bought this camera from, he asked what kind of pictures she takes and I showed him her instagram sites. He said, “She took those pictures with that old Canon? She’s got an eye. Either you do or don’t, and she’s got it.”
I can’t wait to see what she captures. To watch her enjoy doing what she does but with better tools for excellence.
As I spent those hours watching Ebay bids and FaceBook bargains, and then invested money and and time in the purchase, I’ve asked myself how I would feel if this camera ended up broken, stolen, or even worse, simply not used? What would I do if Esther happily received this gift, but after just a few outings left it in a corner to collect dust?
Each time I considered those possibilities, my thoughts turned inward… what gifts am I holding onto but not exercising? What have I put in a corner that’s just sitting there, unused? Our Heavenly Father forged in each of us very specific interests, longings, and abilities to do what He’s designed for us to do. Are we recognizing those gifts, and are they being used?
And how do we even discover our spiritual gifts?
According to the Revel Bible Dictionary, every New Testament context in which spiritual gifts are discussed emphasizes Christian relationships. Gifts operate within community. We learn of our spiritual gifts when we see how God uses us to minister to others and when others recognize certain qualities in us.
Basically, we discover our spiritual gifts by using them for others.
I discussed this with a few friends over dinner, and each of us could name some talents and interests woven throughout our lives. Back to the community piece, some of us were were able to more easily identify each other’s gifts than recognizing our own. We related to putting them in a corner for a season and then sometimes picking them back up. It’s both challenging and invigorating to think of discovering and exercising these gifts.
It brought me such joy to give Esther that extravagant camera.
I can’t wait to see all that she captures.
It brings our Heavenly Father, who knows even more how to give good gifts, unspeakable joy to give us his perfect gifts.
He can’t wait to see what we capture.