“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35
Our daughter is an only child, so she receives a lot: of attention, affection, and (of course) toys.
Since she’s only five, she doesn’t have the resources to give much more than her attention and affection. It’s a blessing that she loves to do that. She’s a snuggler, a hugger, and (especially when a camera’s around) a smiler.
In church, however, she loves to give money (provided that we’ve given her the money).
Right or wrong, I tend to associate Paul’s admonition with money and the virtues of learning that giving money is more blessed than receiving it.
It reminds me that one of the things I miss most about virtual or safely distanced church services is the gathering of the tithes and offerings.
My daughter is by far the youngest person in our church, and once we began regularly attending, she established a ritual of putting a few coins in the tiny church bank that sits on the platform as her great uncle collected checks and paper money from the rest of the congregation.
Pretty soon, our daughter was collecting coins from everyone on her side of the church, and her coin dumping operation would routinely last long past the offertory song.
Clunk.
A quarter.
Clunk.
A nickel.
Clunk.
Three pennies.
Clunk.
Until every last coin was in.
Cat enjoyed the attention. The church enjoyed giving to her. The contributions, though small, showed our willingness to give to God’s work.
Our daughter is the weakest of the congregation, someone unable to care for herself and in the most need of spiritual instruction.
When we worked hard to give her something to give, we were teaching her a lesson directly from Jesus.
Convicted by Paul’s application of Christ’s words — and remembering one of the small pleasures that has disappeared from our worship services after COVID — I am committed to finding ways to teach this lesson to my daughter.
In fact, I will be giving to her what I have received from Christ. I truly am blessed.