The Gift That Keeps Giving
Years ago, I was fishing in Pine Valley Lake with my Uncle J D Swann. Everyone called him “Uncle Dee”, whether related to him or not.
Whenever Uncle Dee would show up, he always had something with him, doughnuts, fruit, cookies or candy.
More than the things he brought was that he brought his sense of humor. (I think it runs in the family) He always had a joke or two. And they were always clean, sometimes a little corny, but always funny.
He was the kind of person (when he was in a good mood) that you just loved being around. A very smart man and Inventor, very kind to kids and I even saw the day that he let my sister put curlers in his hair, just because she asks if she could.
As we were fishing that day, he was catching fish after fish, and I was not. He would reel in one after another as I was reeling in moss. Cast after cast I am bringing in nothing. After about an hour of this, I had enough.
I said, “Uncle Dee, what are you fishing with over there?”
He spoke. “This little Rapala lure.”
I asked, “You got another one of them?”
He didn’t say anything, so I thought he didn’t hear me. How could he not hear me in this old 14-foot boat? Or maybe he didn’t want to share.
He then reeled his line in and cut off the lure and threw it to me. I asked if he had another one, and he told me no, not with him, but he had other lures he could fish with and knew that I didn’t, so he tied a different lure on and went back to fishing.
I tied the Rapala on my line and started catching some fish.
He still was catching more than me, but at least I was catching some now.
At the end of the day fishing with Uncle Dee, I reeled in my line and cut his lure off and tried to give it back, and he said it was mine and I could have it.
It was a gift.
I then asked him if he didn’t want it any longer?
He said yes, he wanted it, but that’s what made it a gift.
He said if he didn’t want it, he would have thrown it away, but it had worth and value to him, so it was worthy of being called a gift.
From then on, I have tried to live by that rule when giving or even buying gifts.
If it doesn’t have worth to me, why would I think it would be something someone else would want it.
If it’s not something I would want to keep, then again, why would anyone want it. It has to cost me something for it to be a gift and not just trash.
The Bible says over 170 times to Receive but it says over 860 times to Give.
That’s 5 times more.
Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” NKJV
If you give a certain amount of money, that amount and more will be coming back to you? No.
You give to help the expenses of the Ministry or Church. Look at the return — Preachers get paid, the church bills get paid, Missionaries are sent to share the Gospel. Churches can do more to help reach others.
As a return, souls will be saved, lives will be changed and great is your reward.
Luke 21:1And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.” NKJV
Understand this, if you give to get you got. But if you give because of Love you get. Get it?
Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. NKJV
Remember “You can’t take it with you when you go, but you can send it on ahead.”
“You can give without love, but you can’t love, without giving.”
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV
He Gave and you Got. Ponder on the cost of that Gift.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. NKJV
The gift my Uncle Dee gave me that day has brought me hours of enjoyment.
It gives me memories of a better time and carefree days.
It gave me a life lesson that I can pass on to you today.
That was some 50 years ago.
I still have that little Rapala lure, I don’t fish with because I am afraid, I could lose it.
It has more value than just being a lure, it was a gift from my Uncle Dee.
I told this story when I preached his funeral in March 2008, and I held up the lure.
It was a gift.
It was something of worth to him.
When thinking about supporting a ministry or giving to your church, helping a missionary, or the youth ministry (and I am talking above your tithes) You may say, “Well, that is going to cost me something.”
Yep, that right, that’s what makes it a gift.
The coming weekend tells of the Greatest Gift of All. Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary’s cross and His resurrection.
HAPPY EASTER
