How To Bear With Sacrifice

My first post. It was prompted tonight in church, when the offering was taken up and some thoughts drifted into my head about what makes us want - or not want - to give up that which God has given us anyway, and I thought other people might enjoy these thoughts or even find helpful.

I don't remember many of the presents I have ever given or received, but one will stick with me, possibly forever. When I was quite a bit younger than now I am, I bought my Mum a teddy bear. This was no ordinary bedtime companion though, no. This was a "hot bear". Inside him was a little bag of beans that could be heated up, so that when inserted you could enjoy lots of warm hugs on a cold Scottish night.

Now, I will admit that I took great pleasure - like any self-respecting young boy - in ripping out a teddy bear's stomach and microwaving it, but it was one of my more thoughtful gifts. My Mum fell in love with that bear's little sown-on smile as soon as she opened her present, and she christened him Alfie. He sits to this day on the rocking-chair in the corner of her room, patiently waiting for his services to be called upon once more.

What struck me about this tonight is that bear was utterly hers. It was her present, and it was bought with her money. I had no job at that age, no income. All I had was my parents', and so all I had done was given back their money in a fluffier form. Which to me is like what happens when the offering baskets do their rounds every Sunday, or when we pour our resources into ministry and outreach.

You see, what made that bear so special was not that I had sacrificed money I had worked for, or that I had any claim to. It was purely an act of love. I gave her something which was basically hers anyway because I knew it would warm her heart (literally, in Alfie's case). That moment wouldn't still be so precious in my mind if at the time I had been bitterly recounting exactly how much pocket money I had lost. That's an attitude which is not dissimilar to when we so often grudgingly give up that tithe or whatever out of some sense of duty. A gift is only worth the giving if it is motivated by love.

 So when I give up that which was never my own, I will try not to see those coins tumble away from my grasp into the basket like some sort of miserable Gollum mourning his precious. I will try to see God leaning back in his rocking chair, with an Alfie under one arm, and round Alfie's arm will be a little label which reads:

To Dad,

lots of love,

 Fergus xxx