More Blessed to Give

Awaiting the offering plate

"By working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Acts 20:35

When I was a little girl, my mom always handed me a dollar to put in the offering pouch as it came around. Whenever there was a collection, I put a dollar in. Always a dollar.

Now the tables are turned. Mama is weak and I am strong. She has no money to keep with her because it might get lost or stolen, and I look after the finances for her. She loses memories and I keep them. The tables are turned, and I am doing things for her that she used to do for me when I was a wee one.

More recently I hit on a new thought: when I take my parents to church with us each week, I hand my mom a dollar or two to put in the offering plate. Always a dollar or two, because that's what she remembers giving from long ago. A dollar or two held carefully in her quiet, weakening hands until the plate comes by, when she solemnly places the bills in the plate and then, ... lets go and pulls her hands back, as if holding on would burn her fingers.

I've realized that placing the dollars in the plate is meaningful to my mom because of this: giving is a human act. And giving is a humane act.

As long as you are capable of giving, as long as you can help meet the needs of others, you feel that your existence is meaningful. This my mother taught me. She can no longer deliver babies, no longer play the piano or the cello, no longer sew or cook for guests or write letters or drive people from here to there as needed. A few years ago when she was capable of verbalizing it, she stated time after time in a tone of quiet desperation: "I'm not useful to anyone. I'm not doing anything to help anyone anymore."

Putting a dollar in the offering is an act of defiance in face of obsolescence. It says, "I can still help." It says, "I have a part to play in this community of believers, even if it's paying for one minute of lighting or a few bulletins." It says, "If I were not here, giving my dollar, you would be a dollar short."

Putting a dollar in the offering says, "This dollar represents the investment of my time, the investment of my education in medicine, the investment of my lost sleep when babies were born at night, the investment of my faithfulness at showing up in time to deliver babies. This dollar represents my gifts to missions and evangelism over the years. And it represents my investment in my daughter who now has a dollar to hand me because of the dollars I put into her education."

And putting a dollar in the offering says, "This dollar represents my heart of responsibility and gratitude to my Savior, passing along in some way the gift of His goodness in creating and caring for me."

A dollar in the offering is symbolic. It not only symbolizes a blessing my mom gives away, but it symbolizes the blessing she receives by the act of giving. A dollar in the offering reteaches the lesson she taught me long ago, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. And so, each week, I slip her a dollar as I remember being a wee girl, and she participates afresh in the holy act of giving. It is indeed a rich and precious moment.