My young wife, after a tragic battle with cancer, had died just a few months earlier. There was no insurance,just mountain of bills. I held a part-time job, which barely generated enough money to feed my two young children. Things were bad.
And so it was that day, with 4 dollars in my pocket, I was on my way to the supermarket to purchase a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. The children were hungry and I had to get them something to eat. As I came to a red traffic light, I noticed on my right a young man, a young woman and a child on the grass next to the road. The man held up a cardboard sign, "Will Work for Food." The woman stood next to him. The child, probably about two years old, sat on the grass.
I wanted so desperately to give them a few dollars, but if I did, there wouldn’t be enough left to buy the milk and bread. As the light changed, I took one last glance at them and sped off feeling both guilty (for not helping them) and sad (because I didn’t have enough money to share with them).
As I kept driving, I couldn’t get the picture of the three of them out of my mind. The sad, haunting eyes stayed with me for about a mile. I felt their pain ,turned around and drove back .I pulled up close to them and handed the man two of my four dollars.There were tears in his eyes as he thanked me. I smiled and drove on to the supermarket.Perhaps both milk and bread would be on sale, I thought.
I pulled into the parking lot, still thinking about the whole incident,yet feeling good about what I had done. As I stepped out of the car, my foot slid on something on the pavement. There by my feet was a twenty-dollar bill. I just couldn’t believe it. I looked all around, picked it up with awe, went into the store and purchased not only bread and milk, but several other items I desperately needed.
I never forgot that incident. It confirmed my belief that you could never out give the universe. On my way back from the supermarket, I drove by the hungry family and shared five additional dollars with them.
It seems that the more we give, the more we get. It is, perhaps, one of those universal laws that say, "If you want to receive, you must first give."
Let us not wait for a time when we think we’ll have lots and then we’ll give. By giving and sharing the little we have, we open up the storehouse of the universe and permit rivers of good to come our way.
Generally, the returns do not come back from those we give to. It comes back from sources we could hardly imagine. Sometimes the return from giving happens very quickly as in the true story above. Other times, it takes much longer.But be assured of this: Give and you will receive - and you’ll receive lots more than you ever gave.
