A gentleman came into Faith Mission recently to make a donation. With tears in his eyes he said, “I am here on a mission.” That prompted me to dig into his story a little and he went on to tell about a conversation he had had with his young grand-daughter about Christmas presents. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, her response was, “Papa, I have everything I need. Take the money you were going to spend and give it to Faith Mission.
Now, we both had tears in our eyes. Giving is a learned behavior. The truth is, we aren’t born givers. In fact, the opposite is true. We are born takers. No one has to teach a baby to cry and demand their way or to throw a fit when they want something. That’s right. A baby is convinced that the whole world revolves around them.
So, when do we grow out of this? Unfortunately, some people never do. For some, the idea of giving is a foreign concept. And I believe the reason is that they have never experienced the blessing of giving. Paul, in Acts 20:35 quoted Jesus in saying, “It is more blessed to give than to received.” To sum up his farewell address to the church at Ephesus, what Paul was saying to them was, “Not everything God gives you is for you.” Sometimes our blessings are taylor-made for sharing. And when we keep those for ourselves, we miss the blessing. The blessing of giving.
I love the story in Luke 21 where Jesus was sitting in the temple watching the people give their offerings. When the widow gave two very small coins, Jesus used the event as a teaching moment for His disciples. He said, “This poor widow has put in more than the others because she gave out of her poverty.” In other words, her gift from her heart was measured, not by how much she gave but by how much she kept.
During this season of giving, I hope we will all experience the blessing of giving and realize that we can never out-give our Heavenly Father. When his blessings to us become blessings to others, then we will experience the blessing of giving.
