Saturday, February 05, 2011

Resourceful and a Little Nerdy sprinkled with Generosity

According to Curtis Honeycutt, the person who rocks the duct tape Bible cozy (What you put around your bible to protect it) is resourceful, if not a little nerdy. In case you are not aware, I rock a hot pink, duct tape, bible cozy! Yes! I would like to say this describes me perfectly; resourceful and a little nerdy. :)

On a more serious note, you read about the lady in the bible who gave the least, even though it was all she had...

Mark 12:41-44And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."

Sometimes Bible stories seem so surreal, so out of date; I question what would it would look like in today's world. This story of generosity blows me away!

At the Noblesville Wal-Mart on Sunday, the generosity from those that you could tell could not afford much was absolutely unbelievable. I think we collected 9-10 full carts of food over 4.5 hours.

The story that stands out the most is a grandmother who had her grandson with her. It appeared they lived together and she was raising him. They parked in the first handicap space right in front of the store entry. She took a flier when going in and said thank you.

Upon coming out, she had only about 15 items in her cart. She stopped and said she unfortunately did not have much to give, but she has needed a food pantry in the past from 25 years of being an alcoholic and will never forget being helped when she could not afford to help herself. She said in front of her grandson she had been sober for the last 11 years.

She told her grandson to donate what he wanted. He started giving his favorite cereal, the Wal-Mart brand Crunchberries, his raisins, Spaghetti O’s and several other items that any kid would want to eat. Then the grandmother gave soups and other things only leaving a couple of items in her cart.

They went to their car that looked like it was not worth $100. No hub caps and rusted. It would not start for several minutes and we thought we needed to get her help. With the front door open so she could hear the engine as she turned the key and pumped the gas, her persistence and technique won out.

We thought they were leaving when the grandson popped out of the front seat and came running over with their bag of a dozen apples. We had tears in our eyes. We were reminded of the lady in the bible who gave the least in the plate, but Jesus knew she gave pretty much all she had. God bless this grandmother who that day taught her grandson the best lesson of his life.

4 comments:

RuthT said...

There is a lot to think about here.

Derek and Claire Plantenga said...

Love it! A beautiful "teachable moment"--thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Definitely a "teachable moment", not only for others but myself as well.

Carolyn said...

Definitely makes me think whether I'm giving out of excess or giving until it hurts! Good food for thought!