Multiplied

$2.32.   A treasure given out of a heart moved by God to support us.   A young girl presented us with this treasure in a hand-made envelope with a note saying that this treasure was to use for our mission and that she would pray for us whenever she remembered.  I was incredibly touched.  This wasn’t just any $2.32, it contained a two-dollar bill.  Now, to my kids, those bills were precious and special.  I can only assume that this gift was special to her.  It was given in faith, knowing that it would be used to introduce people to Jesus.

This gift got me thinking about the way children give.  We’ve experienced this with our own children…when led to give, they give without worry or reserve.  Our daughter once emptied her piggy bank for a mission offering.  There was no worry about not having any money left, there was only joy at getting to give.  Children obviously don’t have the worries that adults do; they don’t have to pay bills or meet obligations.  They generally know that their parents will take care of those things.   As adults, we count costs, worry about what will happen if we give everything away, when in reality, we can be relying on our Father to provide for all of our needs.  It seems so simple, yet it feels so complicated, so difficult.  Why?

In the Bible, there was a child who gave away all that he had with him.  A young boy gave five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus.  Supposedly, this was the only food to be found among thousands of people.  It was at least the only food offered up.  The people were out in the middle of nowhere.  Food and water were not readily available.  Jesus’ disciples were worried and recommended sending the people away to find food.  Yet this boy willing gave his life-sustaining food to the master.  I wonder, though, what he thought as he watched was Jesus did with his gift, his offering.  He most likely thought that he was giving food to feed the master, to feed Jesus.  A sacrifice, but one he could be proud of.  What did he think as he watched Jesus tear it apart and give it away?  Was there a moment when he thought, “Wait, that isn’t what I gave that for!”  or did he just trust and watch in wonder as his small offering became a miracle?  A miracle that blessed thousands and provided for the giver as well.

It’s interesting to me the process by which the miracle occured.  In order for the food to become a miracle, it first had to be offered, torn up, broken, and given away.  This offering up and breaking is also the process by which the miracle of salvation was worked on the cross.  One life offered up, torn up, broken, and given away brought life to all who would receive.

In this process of moving and leaving and saying goodbye, we’ve had to give many things up to God: our church family, our ministry, our own children, our finances, the future.  Things that represented nourishment and security to us, things that blessed us, things and people that were treasures to us.  Of course, we have ideas about what we want God to do with those things, ideas about what it should look like; we know how we think it should go.  But when we release our treasures to God we give up our right to say how they will be used.  As hard as it is, we have to be willing for God to break them and give them away—for God to break us and give us away.  When we surrender our lives we have to be willing for God to do things that we don’t anticpate, expect or even understand if we want our offerings to become miracles.  And we do.  We want to see our offerings multiplied.  We want to see God’s kingdom come.  We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…”  The two cannot be separated.  His kingdom can only come His way, in His time.   That’s the way a kingdom works: the King is in charge.

That $2.32?  It will from this time on remind us that we are to give like a child, trusting that we can give without fear or worry, that we can trust our Father to do what is best.  We will also remember that our treasures, our gifts and offerings can be multiplied, can become miracles when we let them go and watch in wonder at what God will do.