The Gift of Giving


I couple of Saturdays ago; I came home to find Julia with tears in her eyes. She told me that she had been given the most amazing gift. To give this context, you need to understand that Julia is used to receiving gifts. At the end of a school year, she receives so many gifts that it takes more than one trip from school to bring them all home. Many of these gifts are extravagant.

Julia teaches at the St Stithians Thandulwazi School on a Saturday morning. The purpose of the school is to empower underprivileged learners and to help teachers who want to improve their skills. Julia teaches English to the teachers. One of the women was so touched by Julia’s passion and desire to make a difference, that she had brought a gift.

I was intrigued to find out what kind of gift had caused this depth of emotion. On the table was a crumpled plastic packet. Tears streaming down her cheeks, Julia opened the packet. There was nothing shiny in it, no layers of gold paper, no ribbons or bows to be seen. The packet was full of monkey nuts.

The gift was from a young intern teacher. She told Julia that she had no money to buy a gift, so she had gone out into her little patch of garden and gathered the nuts for her. She offered her gift with sincerity and dignity.

The story of Julia’s gift has stayed in my mind. Here was a woman, who, like the widow in the Bible who gave her two mites, had given more than the wealthy could ever give. The story in Luke goes on to say that she, “out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.” (Luke 21:1-4 New King James Version)


I was touched by more than this though. Julia wanted to give something in return, but as we turned this over in conversation, we understood that this would diminish the gift that had been given. Instead, the following week, Julia took some French books for another of the teachers who was trying to teach herself French. She paid it forward.

I’m good at giving gifts but I’m not good at receiving them. Sometimes, the greatest gift is to be able to accept was has been given with grace and then to pay it forward.

There is a great gift in giving.


The greatest gift is in receiving the giver’s gift into the heart. 

Comments

  1. Pat Pughe-Parry8 June 2014 at 08:48

    It is not how much you give but how much you have left. Heartwarming to know there are still plenty of good people in this selfish world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shona Bagley8 June 2014 at 09:19

    This had me in tears

    ReplyDelete

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