Good Gifts: Greater Reactions!

There is an old adage: “The best thing about giving is that the reaction is always greater than the action.” Most gifts bring joy to the giver and the receiver. The pleasure is now doubled. Obviously, the gift plus doubled pleasure is greater than the gift alone. Even if the gift was a wrong choice, the reactions of both parties, added to the gift, become more than the gift itself. How much greater than the gift can the reactions become? Consider this: When driving in traffic, have you allowed another driver to enter the road in front of you? Later, did that driver allow cars to enter, and then those drivers did, too? Or, if you were entering from the side, were you irked by the driver who wouldn't let you in? Pleased by the driver who would? Did you react with thoughtfulness? If so, your gift was courtesy; your reaction part of “the ripple effect,” which doesn’t just add reactions to gifts, it multiplies them! We seldom know how many ripples our gifts create.

Offerings multiply this way. Rippling across the church and around the world into homes, schools, shelters, and hospitals, they affect communities and individuals in ways we'll never see. Time doesn't destroy them. We are blessed by such giving... but greater still, are the multiplied reactions to our gifts and the blessings they compound.