Taken With The Giver

Taken with the Giver

When I used to call home after being gone for seven weeks, my two youngest children would say, "Daddy, what are you going to bring me?" My two older children would say, "Daddy, when are you coming home?" Then when I would get home, these two young ones would give me a peck on the cheek and then head for the suitcases. They would dig into those suitcases, and find their little gifts. The next thing I would hear would be the two little ones on the telephone telling some of their friends about their gifts, and saying, "Guess what I have that you don't have. You need what I've got." Then I would see them off in a corner playing with those gifts. While they were playing with their gifts, I would stroll out to the barn to look at the horses, and around the yard, and my two oldest children would be by my side. They were not as interested in the gifts I had brought them as they were in having some time with the giver.

When my oldest child, my daughter, began to drive, I gave her a credit card and said, "It is yours. Use it as you will." She has never abused this privilege, and I find myself constantly trying to anticipate her needs so that I might meet them for her, even before she asks. Why do we have this relationship? It is because she is taken up with the giver. She has learned something--that is, when she is properly related to the giver, she gets all the gifts that he knows she needs. Psalm 34: 10 describes this for us: "They who seek the Lord shall not be in want for any good thing."

(Source: Manley Beasley, Faith Workbook No.2, published by Murdock Printing Company, Second Printing, May 1981, Memphis, Tennessee; Copyright, 1979, Manley Beasley; pg. 52.)