Leviticus established the guidelines for a variety of offerings, one of which was the peace or fellowship offering. This was a freewill offering in that it was not prescribed as a sacrifice for sin, but as an expression of thanksgiving or when upon the fulfillment of a voluntary vow at the giver's discretion. We read,
The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who brings a fellowship offering to the Lord is to bring part of it as their sacrifice to the Lord. With their own hands they are to present the food offering to the Lord; they are to bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast before the Lord as a wave offering" (Leviticus 7:28-30).
The worshiper was to "wave the breast before the Lord as a wave offering." What happens when you wave to someone? You are drawing their attention to you, in essence saying, "Hello, I'm here. I send you greetings. I acknowledge your presence is within eyesight of my presence and I welcome it. Please respond and welcome me." The wave offering was designed to say, "God, I see You and I hope You see me. Here I am, thanking You for your goodness and mercy. I hope you acknowledge my presence!" Then the rest of the offering was to be shared with others to eat and enjoy.
This offering counters the oft-heard exhortation that it must be all about the Lord while you do nothing to draw attention to yourself. The fellowship offering does the opposite. It's an expression of who you are, given when you choose to do so, and is for no other reason than to say to God, "Hi! I'm here and I know You are, too." That means you can wave your gift of poetry, business, teaching, mercy, missions, generosity, humor, or any other talent before the Lord and draw His attention to what you're doing as a means of worship and thanksgiving that He made you who you are. Then you can share who you are and what you do with others as another means of giving thanks.
What do you have that you can wave before the Lord? What do you have or do that you can share with others as part of your wave offering? What do you do that when the focus centers on you, you can then redirect the attention on Him, the One who gave you the gift or talent in the first place? The point is that God doesn't have to initiate everything you do so you can use your free will and decide to give out of the abundance of who you are to God and others as often as you like.
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