What’s in a letter?
Ruth pulled her coat close as she made her way to the corner store. She thought about the surreal events of the morning - those that prompted this unplanned sojourn in the biting cold. She woke up that morning to find an envelope on the floor by her front door. She hardly ever received any mail and was sure she didn't miss it from the day before. Someone must have dropped it through her letterbox overnight - there was neither a stamp nor a postmark on it, only her name.
It read: "Dear Ruth, I'm going to be in your neighbourhood this evening and I'd like to stop by for a visit. Love, JC"
Her hands trembled as she placed the letter on the table. "JC? No. It couldn't be. Could it?"
With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. "Oh my goodness, I don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner." She reached for her purse and emptied out its contents on the table. Seven dollars and 12 cents was all she had.
"Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least.", she thought to herself as she threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk left Ruth with a grand total of four cents to last her until the next week. Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed back home, her meagre offerings tucked under her arm.
"Hello there," a voice called out from the dark alleyway beside the store, "Can you please help us?" Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures, a man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags, huddled together in the damp alley. "My wife and I have been living out here on the street and well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, we'd really appreciate it."
"Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him."
"I understand, my dear. Thanks anyway." The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley. As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart.
"Sir, wait!" The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. "Look, why don't you take this food? I will find something else to serve my guest." She handed the man her grocery bag.
"Thank you, my dear! Thank you so very much!" It was only then that Ruth noticed that his wife was shivering.
"You know, I've got another coat at home." She didn't. "Here," she continued, "Why don't you take this one." Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Smiling, she turned and walked back to the street without her coat and with nothing to serve for dinner.
"May God bless you, my dear", said the man's wife.
Ruth was shivering by the time she reached her front door. As soon as she hurried through her front door, she noticed another envelope on the floor. She knew who it was from.
"Dear Ruth,", it read, " It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal and thank you also for the beautiful coat. Love, JC"
The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed.
There is much to learn from Miriam in this beautiful story, the most obvious and important one being her generosity.
The word generous is defined as follows :
To give something to someone, especially more than is usual or expected.
To see the word give being used in the definition above made me think about how we have come to place most acts of giving under the umbrella of generosity. The word give is defined as :
An act of offering something to someone, or to provide for someone.
While there is a relationship between giving and generosity, what we seem to have lost sight of over the years is the key concept that separates them. While giving in all forms must be commended, we must remember that it is a building block of the much larger concept of generosity. The very essence of generosity lies not just in the act of giving but in the act of giving more than is expected. Only when we go from giving what is expected to giving more than what is expected do we step into the realm of generosity.
What is even more amazing about this particular story is that it takes us one step further into the vast and abundant world of magnanimity. Miriam's actions were all the more special because she gave from a place of scarcity, rather than that of surplus.
The letter-writer from our story said it best around two thousand years ago.
Luke 21:1-41 And He looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3 And He said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
Have we lost the awe and wonder that comes with a faith, not backed by reason and evidence? Has this dependence on our limited human understanding and knowledge caused us to be less expansive in thought, word and deed? Have we inadvertently allowed these boundaries to cripple our awareness of a world outside our own as we go about our daily lives?
Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
To give someone a hand. Or both. To lend someone an ear. Or two. To see your sacrifice as a loss. Or someone else's gain. To see paucity. Or in it, the hope of eternal abundance. To see emptiness. Or an excess of space. To look. Or to see. The choice is yours.
And in this choice lies the path to the very essence of generosity.
What we must never forget is that the more we give, the more space we create to receive.