He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:10 ESV
When our cupboards all were empty And my heart’s shelves were looking bare I heard a voice speaking behind me “Take your seed and plant it there
There in the desert place is flowing A Living Stream so fresh and free And in those parched forgotten places God may choose to grow a tree
For though the ground is dry and hardened The soil is rich and deep and fair And if you plant the seed you’re given You will reap the harvest there!
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. Mark 12:42-43ESV
When we want to know the worth of a precious stone, we take it to a jeweler who takes his magnifying glass and looks at its clarity and counts the facets. If we need to sell our home, we call an appraiser. When they get to our house, they check it inside and out to ascertain its market value. Standard practice is to value things according to their appearance. But God sees everything differently. In this story of the widow, the disciples were shocked that Jesus had said that she had given more than all the others. They had seen with their own two eyes, only two tiny copper coins fall from her hand into the offering box. They missed what Jesus had seen of her love, her sacrifice and faith.
If we want to look beautiful to God, we must start by remembering that nothing we see on the outside is as it appears to Him. God looks at our actions and puts them under HIs heavenly jeweler’s magnifying glass. The appraiser of the universe examines our motives according to their eternal market value. Neither the amount of money we give or how often we volunteer at the soup kitchen impresses Him. What counts with Jesus is the clarity of our love and the weight of our faith. God gives all of us the same opportunity, that He gave the widow. It doesn’t matter what other people think of our offering, what counts is if we put it into the hand of God today!
They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Matthew 14:17-18 ESV
After Christmas people who we missed seeing on the big day sometimes stop by unexpectedly and more often than we would like to admit we do some quick re-gifting, though – we try to avoid that label because it is associated with someone who is a cheap-skate. However, in the Bible Jesus often practiced re-gifting. In today’s verse, for example, Jesus took five loaves from the disciples, who got them from a small boy and then gave them to five thousand hungry people. Later, Jesus took the disciples who His Father had given Him and gave them to the world. Last of all; Jesus took the life which the Father had given Him, and He gave it to us on the cross.
In this year ahead we will all be “gifted” with time, talent and treasure. None of these things belong to us. All we have is just passing through our hands. How we “Re-Gift” what we have received has the potential to feed the hungry, bring comfort to hurting people, and give friendship to those in our world. We need to each ask ourselves what we can unashamedly re-gift every day. May God bless you as you share your gifts in the 365 days of the year ahead!
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