Giving Gratitude

Reaching out is how we give. It is also how we anticipate we will receive. If you have ever watched a drop of water under a microscope, you can easily understand the concept. A single drop abounds with tiny organisms giving and receiving as they live and die. Their efforts carry them into and out of harm’s way. They bump into the benign and the dangerous. Some eat dinner and some become dinner. They only cease to make an impact when they cease to participate. This is the cycle and purpose of life. Why? Because it glorifies the maker of all when that which He has created performs as He designed it to.

“Ask and it will be given unto you.” Do you have any Idea where this often quoted saying can be found? And what is it really referring to? Is it a call to be kind or generous or selfish? Does it mean the giver benefits more than those given to? Is it fair to expect a return when you give? Are there stipulations or caveats not disclosed that are worth knowing? In all of your own giving have you personally known this admonition to be true? We certainly do not start out giving. As infants we cry for our food, for our diaper to be changed, for our needs and appetites to be served and well met. Then and only then are our little bodies willing to share the cooing and cuddling which brings so much joy.

“Give and it will be given unto you.” Who do you think gets the credit for coming up with this one? How much do you give? How often do you give? Is it to be given from your abundance or out of your necessity? Am I more rewarded to give one of many I have, or the only one I have? If it is a vegetable, do I keep one so I can grow more? Will I get the same one given back to me after it is depleted? Is my focus to be on the giving or the getting?

Am I looking for the instant reward or will it come back eventually like bread cast upon the waves? And who will be doing the giving back unto me? Is it the one I have shared with or another unknown to me? Perhaps it is someone else’s thought that they are the initiator of the process when they are unwittingly a participant in a much wider circle. When is it giving to get and is there a way to be getting to give?

Reaching out with an empty hand might be the universal symbol for expressing need. While stretching forth arms laden with blessings for others shows the heart of one who has abundance. I have experienced in my life that those who have little find it easier to share what little they have than those who are laden with far too much. Somewhere there is a story about building bigger barns to store more and more. Somewhere there is a story about sharing out of the abundance that wisdom and foresight allowed to be accumulated. Our desires are formulated by those we spend the most time with. Expectations are set through time and practice. Having a purpose and a plan in your giving and receiving, comes from knowing who provides and how it is intended to be consumed.

Sometimes it is just as important to be in the channel of getting as it is to be a giver. Giving can have a detrimental aspect with it. It can be a prideful spirit which believes that in and of its own goodness it has accumulated and dispensed the gift which another is grateful for. Someone once said that “in me, that is in my fleshly body, no good thing lives”. Because the carnal fleshly body is a product of conception by the will of the bodies who make it so and flesh needs to be fed. Also as anyone knows quite well, physical ability diminishes with age.

Perhaps an appropriate application, if not the intent for “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. As we all come to realize, we must take care when we think we stand, lest we fall. There are seasons in our lives when that which we have or are able to use to provide are taken from us. It forces us into a position of humility. Not because we can receive good at the hands of others but because we must. For we are at that time unable in any way to be the provider, the giver, the sharer.

To protect themselves from a measure of public pride, many givers do so anonymously. The joy of being able to share in the excitement of the receiver as an un-involved companion often far outweighs any accolades the world can offer. It is also true that when you are a public giver, there is a measure of expectation from those in need. If you were able to give one blind person the ability to see, others might exceed a natural hope and expect that you must do the same for them. Being the target of continual insistence for help tarnishes the joy of being the blessing. Giving without being acknowledged leaves but one recourse. For all things must be fulfilled as they were designed. A gift has a giver and a receiver and a rewarder. If the gift given is received without knowledge of who the giver is, how is the rewarder to be known?

A sarcastic saying of our day is that “no good deed goes unpunished”. It is meant to be a play on words to indicate that sometime what you have done and meant for good receives a reward which is contrary to the gift. Still the truth is simpler. No gift of any value whatsoever is unseen by our Creator. Every kindness that we do, every sacrifice we make is seen and rewarded by Jesus.

Our rewards may not all be known in this life but there will never be a time when Jesus owes you anything. He has given to you, life and talents and knowledge. He rewards you for using all that you are for His glory. He draws you to Himself and desires for you to believe in Him. He provides understanding and guidance for you to be able to see Him. He is the ultimate reward which He wants you to experience. It is His joy to have created the universe and all that is in it, including mankind. It is His passion to have each one of us to return to the place we belong in His family. He willingly went to the cross to die for your sins because you could not survive that penalty. He was buried in the grave for three days and three nights to fulfill the prophecies of scripture. And He rose from the grave to prove that because He lives, you also may live in eternity with Him.

So what will it be? Which would you rather be, a giver or a receiver? Or better yet how about a receiver who gives all that is received. You are intended to be a channel of blessings. You are purposed by God to share all that is put within your life with all who He allows to come within your reach. He will then do the same with them and the great gift wherewith you have blessed them will become that massive gift which is described as pressed down, shaken together and running over. This is the cycle and purpose of life. Why? Because it glorifies the maker of all when that which He has created performs as He designed it to.

What do you have to give?