Generosity

Happy New Year! I hope you had a blessed holiday together with your loved ones. Now that the Christmas season is behind us and we are back in the office at work again in the New Year, I have, as is customary in such cases, exchanged with our staff for the holidays that have been spent. We talked about family traditions and the fact that older generations can often teach us something about gratitude. In a conversation, an employee mentioned an inspirational story.

This started with her grandparents, who are very generous people. But even more than that, they are interested in making what they give as broad as possible. They do not necessarily want to be known for making big gifts; they just want their generosity to be passed on. They attach great importance to giving you, not just stops at a station. They prefer that they give themselves branched out and get their own life and multiply themselves. They also want to give in a creative way and so they think about how to deal with the gifts that God has given them.

Here's what this friend's family does: Every Thanksgiving Day, Grandmother and Grandfather give each of their children and grandchildren a small sum of twenty or thirty dollars. They then ask family members to use this money to bless someone else as a kind of further payment. And then at Christmas they get together again as a family and exchange ideas. During the usual celebrations, they also enjoy hearing how each family member has used their grandparents' gifts to bless others. It is remarkable how a relatively small amount of money can turn into so many blessings.

The grandchildren are motivated to be generous through the generosity that has been brought to them. Often a family member adds something in addition to the given amount before passing it on. They really enjoy themselves and see it as a kind of competition to see who could best pass on this blessing. In a year, a creative family member used the money to buy bread and other food so they could hand out sandwiches to hungry people for several weeks.

This wonderful family tradition reminds me of Jesus' parable of the talents entrusted to him. Each servant was given a different amount by his master: "To one he gave five talents of silver, to another two talents, and to another one talent," and each was charged with administering what was given (Matthew 25:15). In the parable, the servants are asked to do more than just receive the blessing. They are asked to use their financial gifts to serve their master's interests. The servant who buried his silver had his share taken away because he did not try to increase it (Matthew 25:28). Of course, this parable is not about investment wisdom. It's about blessing others with what we've been given, no matter what it is or how much we can give. Jesus praises the widow who could give only a few pennies (Luke 21:1-4) because she gave generously of what she had. It is not the size of the gift that is important to God, but our willingness to use the resources He has given us to bestow blessings.

The family I told you about, trying to multiply what they can, in some ways they are like the Lord in Jesus' parable. The grandparents leave parts of what they want to give, trust and love to use at their own discretion. It would probably make these nice people sad, just as it saddened the Lord in the parable to hear that their grandchildren left the money in the envelope and disregarded the generosity of the grandparents and their simple request. Instead, this family loves to think about new creative ways to pass on the blessings of the grandparents in which they were included.

This multigenerational mission is wonderful because it shows many different ways we can bless others. It doesn't take much to start with. In another parable of Jesus, the parable of the sower, we are shown what is so great about the "good soil" those who truly accept the words of Jesus are those who produce fruit "a hundredfold, sixty, or thirtyfold of that what they sowed" (Matthew 13:8). God's kingdom is an ever-growing family. It is by sharing our blessings rather than hoarding them for ourselves that we can partake in God's welcoming work in the world.

In this time of the New Year's resolutions I would like to ask you to consider with me where we can plant our seeds of generosity. In which of our spheres of life could we reap abundant blessings by sharing what we have with someone else? Like this family, we would do well to give what we have to those whom we know will use it for a good cause.

We believe in sowing the seed on good soil where it will have the most impact. Thank you for being one of those who give so generously and joyfully so that others may get to know the God who loves us all. One of our key values ​​in the WKG / GCI is to be good stewards so that as many as possible get to know the name and person of Jesus Christ.

In gratitude and love

Joseph Tkach
President GRACE COMMUNION INTERNATIONAL