Blessed Enough

November 12, 2018

Eleven is an interesting age, especially for a boy. He’s getting too old for toys, but not old enough for cars or to want stuff that would impress the girls. Our eleven-year-Old is a prime example of the genre. For his birthday last month, I told him I’d take him shopping. He was excited to have received gift cards enabling him to pick out whatever he wanted, and was ready to go when I stopped by to pick him up. 

“Where first?” I asked. “This is your day.”

He didn’t even need to think about it. “The Game Store,” he replied enthusiastically. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in an alternate reality, staring at rows of shelves filled with every kind of electronic game one could imagine, most of which were pretty pricey by any standard. He went straight for the ‘previously owned’ rack, and after a mere ten minutes had two selected and paid for.

A couple sports stores and a stop at Walmart yielded nothing, so we went to Five Guys for burger and fries and came home via a stop at Tops supermarket to wire some funds to a Mongolian missionary couple I know. That stop gave the occasion for a conversation about giving. I told him that God has blessed us so that we have more than we need and are able to give generously to others, which gives us great satisfaction.

Nathan knows all about this. A couple weeks ago, we had the Firstfruits Sunday of our sacrificial giving campaign for a big addition to our building. Nathan’s birthday was the Friday before. He decided to give all the cash he received to the building project. He kept the gift cards, but gave every cent, a considerable gift from an eleven-year old. Even at this, he was hard pressed to find anything he wanted to buy with his gift cards, so he came home nearly empty handed. But giving feels good, and he knows firsthand the blessing it brings because he knows firsthand the blessing he has received, and is thankful. Eleven is an interesting age. Especially because this boy-man has taken a huge step into real manhood, making for one very thankful grandfather.