Pay it forward.
When given a gift one could never repay, what else is there to do?
Yet as we prepare to enter this Easter season, it is easy to forget the little ways God is working in our lives, and how much it means even just to pay forward the gifts our Father so freely blesses us with.
It is why sophomore Jillian Voges, a social work major, is so dedicated to maintaining a posture of praise as she celebrates the gift of a high-end sewing machine, given by an anonymous family friend, with the simple request that she would indeed pay it forward.
“I was dumbfounded (by the gift),” Voges said. “I wasn't emotional right then, but after it settled in and I started using this machine, …I called my mom and she was crying because she's like, ‘How could this level of generosity (happen)?”
It is not just the grand gifts that leave an impact, however. Generosity drawn from a faithful heart can transform a life even in something as small as fixing a meal or buying groceries for someone. Those who even know me well often find themselves at the table with me, but I do not only cook for my own enjoyment.
I do it because I remember the many times strangers brought us groceries or fixed us meals when our budget did not quite make ends meet for the month. I do it because, without saying a word, friends have brought me a cup of coffee or answered a text when I needed it most — because people have prayed over me sometimes even without me knowing it at the time.
True, we cannot fix the world for one another. We cannot always solve someone’s heartache or meet a friend’s financial need. But I can always fill someone’s empty stomach. We can always pray. We can always choose to simply be there for one another.
Scripture tells us, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst” and sometimes, the best present one can offer is being present in itself (Matt. 18:20 NASB).
Yet it is important, too, to acknowledge that not all of us are equipped at the time of giving to pour out into those around us. There is no shame in accepting a gift, in asking for help, in humbling oneself as we do at the foot of the cross.
Easter is a call to remember the goodness and freeness of our salvation, the one gift we can never do enough to ever repay. The gift we could never pay forward and yet are called to put on display.
It is meant to be the red thread intertwining every aspect of our lives, sewn into our hearts with the same intention that exists in every piece of Voges’ machine.
PRAYER: Faithful Father, thank you for the beautiful gifts you offer us.
You are so, so good, and today, I pray that you would help us to honor and accept that sacrifice that your son made. Help us to pay your love forward to those around us. Help us to practice putting others first even as we remember the value and worth that you have also given us.
Please keep our eyes open, our hearts soft and our posture bent in humble praise to you. Continue to remind us of the freeness that you offer us, and heal our hearts as we carefully discern what we have to give out to others. God, we know we could never repay you for your goodness, but please help us to become a little more like you every day, growing into generosity and love as we practice paying love forward. Amen.
