Yesterday Jonah was having a tough time eating his vegetables. So I picked some up off his tray and ate them to show him how yummy they are. Thinking he would follow my lead and start to eat them I was really excited when he finally started picking up some green beans. Then he reached them out toward me instead of toward him! He wanted me to have them. Ha! He saw how much I liked them and wanted me to have more. Now he thinks feeding us is funny (as you can see in the picture of him feeding Missy some of his veggies).
I guess it is possible that he thinks if we eat them he won’t have to but I don’t think that’s it. Jonah thinks we need his vegetables (or at least that feeding us is a funny idea). He doesn’t know that what little he gives doesn’t really have much value in and of itself. But the fact that he wants us to have it means everything to us. It is ours anyway. We bought those vegetables. But in his little world he feels like he has something to offer us and wants very badly for us to enjoy it. I wonder if our relationship with God isn’t a lot like that. We try to give God the things we think He likes. Some times we get it right and some times we get it wrong but either way we are trying to make Him happy. The reality of it all is that our gifts in and of themselves don’t really have much value to God but our desire does.
Two passages come to mind:
“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” – 2 Cor 9:7
Luke 21 tells us about a widow who gave little but it was all she had to give.
Jesus never said the more you give the more blessed you are. But he did teach that our attitude in the giving means more than the amount.
