Generosity

Have you ever received a gift that just made you want to shout and sing?

Imagine the City of Newark, New Jersey getting a generous check from a business ENOUGH TO REVAMP THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT.  Now that is what is a gift to a city.

All of us like to think that we are generous.  Especially we like to think at Christmas that we are really giving to loved ones and ones in need and to churches, etc. But, soon that can pass and we become a bit more ourselves i.e. thinking about our own needs.

Think for a moment on the most generous thing that any human being has ever given to you.
Hint: it might not be monetary.  It might be time, friendship, or something really different.

 The wise men came bearing gifts for the Christ child.  They went first to Jerusalem and then were redirected (notice this correction) to the little town of Bethlehem where they found under the star that had stopped what they had longed for for months and years.  They found a gift that was so precious that they returned back home with that JOY that wasn't going to leave.  They took time to seek and find and to give gifts to this Child.

One day a poor widow put a few pennies into the offering and Jesus told his disciples she gave more than all the others because she gave what she had to live on.

God sees what we give and what we don't give. God never forces because what He wants from us is not our stuff but our love. However, if our stuff is an idol, it has to go.

Generosity. Think about it.  How can you express your love to God by sharing?