She didn't own a car and couldn't afford a taxi so she walked or took a city bus except for those times someone came by to pick her up. She had very little to call her own but she always had something to give to others.
Sunday would always find her in church, where she taught Bible class for children and when the collection plate was passed, it never passed her by before she put in her small amount of money that she had put aside faithfully, divided up for each week's giving. If there were a special offering for the poor or missions, she found a bit more to share.
Grandma never had much, she somehow managed to live on her tiny monthly Social Security check without asking anyone for help. And yet, she always had to give because she had a generous heart that danced with cheerful giving.
Her spirit reminded me of what the apostle Paul said about the Corinthian Church, "their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people" (2 Cor 8:2-4).
This generosity of spirit, this cheerful giving found in my Grandmother and in the Corinthian Church is precisely what God is looking for in his children. He is not, as under the Law of Moses, requiring a temple tax or tithe, but rather desiring a gift determined by the giver from the joyful heart: "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:7).
Cheerful giving isn't about having an abundant income but rather an abundant let go. Givers like my Grandmother didn't wait for abundance of material goods to give, they give from an abundant heart, a heart that swells with the opportunity to share. Cheerful giving is not just a good thing, it is a God Thing. It is a Grandma thing. Is it your thing? Jus' Ask'n.
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