“No!  I won’t give it to him,” cried out the six year old.

“But it will please God.  It’s better to give than to receive, and you get lots of toys from McDos.”  (What they call McDonalds in the Philippines.)

He shakes his head indicating, “no.”

“And you know what?  I bet if you give your car to him it won’t be long before you get blessed in a bigger way.  Okay?  Let’s go over to the next table and give him the car.”

“No!”

It’s hard to teach a child something that goes against what his culture screams, “Take care of yourself first!”  If he only knew.  We were at the mall, and I wanted like crazy to see the bewilderment on my little friend’s face when the other young man received something he didn’t earn, or even ask for.  There is something about “unexpected joy”.  It looks right, and I know, it feels right.  Then, if my young friend had given the toy away, I was going to take him to the gaming area where you play games of chance to get tickets, only to cash them in on cheaper toys, because he likes it.

I suspect God is the same way with us.  “Come on, give, and it will be given to you.  Trust me in this.”  But it defies our human logic, and we hang on to something that is cheap.  It’s so hard for us to imagine that we will have enough or more than enough when we are already hurting.  If you only knew, there is freedom, and tremendous joy in giving.  God knows of this joy, because He gave us his only Son, Jesus.  Now you know.

Copyright © 2019 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.