You may recall from the press coverage after his death, that President Bush had been sponsoring
and corresponding with a child in the Philippines. He had been to a concert where the performers
talked about a program through Compassion International that facilitated sponsorship of children
in need throughout the world. They had packages with pictures of kids at the concert, and the
President, much to the chagrin of his secret service detail, stuck up his hand and took one.
In addition to sending money each month, the program encourages you to develop a relationship
with the child through letters. It seems that President Bush greatly enjoyed the opportunity to
interact with this child, sharing his love and learning about the boy’s life. I know this because our
family had the same experience as the President.
Jen and I were at an Amy Grant concert 15 years ago, and we took a package from Compassion.
Before we knew it we had another son in Rwanda, a 6 year old named Rodges. I will admit that our
decision to do this was based purely upon the idea that we could help someone less fortunate. We
felt called to spend a small amount of money to help a child in a distant land to live a better life.
As we were to learn, Compassion provides food, medical treatment and education to kids
throughout the world. It was a nice idea and we were happy to be doing our small part. What we
had not counted on was that this child would write to us.
What began as purely a financial gift soon morphed into something different, something for which
we were entirely unprepared. For through the exchange of letters, we got to know this boy. We
learned about his life, his family, and the way they lived. And we shared our lives with him;
sending pictures and offering details of how we lived. Without ever intending it, we entered into a
relationship with this child. We looked forward to getting letters; they became a family event and
we would wait until dinner to read the latest one, so we could all hear it together and talk about it.
Our relationship with Rodges changed our children. It helped them to gain a broader perspective
about their lives; I can tell you they were a lot less materialistic when they heard about Rodges’
life.
Rodges turned 21 and aged out of the program. In fact, we just got our last letter and it made me
quite melancholy. As we talked about the experience, it dawned on us that this relationship was
not what we had planned. We intended that this was a way to offer a gift to someone less
fortunate. We thought it was about this boy’s need to receive. To receive food, education and
money from a family who had more than his own. But through the relationship that developed,
we ultimately realized that this was not it at all. This was not about Rodges need to receive, it was
really all about our need to give.
It may sound the same, but it is decidedly different. We thought we were performing an act of
charity. Nice, clean, antiseptic charity. We would never meet the beneficiary of our gift, so there
was no chance we would ever be changed by it. And then the letters started coming. Rodges gift
of letting us be part of his life was more than we ever asked for or expected, but it changed the
entire paradigm. What was meant to help him, wound up helping us in return. It was about filing
our need to give much more than it was about Rodges need to receive.
Our relationship with God is much like that. We call God our Father and that is true; God is our
creator and without God we are nothing. It would be easy to accept that at face value and assume
that this is one-way street; God gives, and we take.
The old testament is full of stories of God trying to establish a relationship with mankind. From the
creation of Adam and Eve to the flight out of Egypt, the arc of the Hebrew Bible is the story of God
longing to enter into covenant relationship with his people. The new testament picks up on that
theme at the start. We have just celebrated the feast of the incarnation, which we call Christmas.
In taking our mortal form, God went even further than ever before, surrendering a part of himself
to literally develop a deeper relationship with us. But have you ever stopped to wonder why God
goes to such lengths to build a relationship with humanity?
It would be tempting to think that it is because we need it so badly. We need to be in relationship
with God because, left to our own instincts, we are a mess. Our nature is to be grasping and
selfish, to care more about ourselves than one another, to hurt others as we take the things that
we want. Being in a relationship with God does indeed help to curb our baser nature; it reminds us
that we are not in this alone, but are God’s children.
But it is not simply that we need to receive God’s love that reminds us that we are meant for more.
No, the reason that God goes to such lengths to build a relationship with us is not just because of
our need to receive, but also about God’s need to give.
It seems to be in God’s nature to give, and what He gives is his unparalleled love and the desire for
an intimate relationship. God desires this so much, that he gives us himself, to come among us and
to restore us to a relationship with Him and with one another. We celebrated this at Christmas,
and again at the Epiphany with the arrival of the Magi. But these were mostly private revelations.
Today we have Jesus baptism by John at the Jordan. God chooses to publicly identify Jesus, both
with voice and with the Spirit. These are tangible demonstrations of the trinity, all three aspects of
God. To the crowd who witnessed this, there can be no doubt. God himself has broken into the
world, to literally give us himself. There is no more sacrificial gift than that gift of love.
It is not just about our need to receive Him, as much as it is about His need to give Himself to us.
God gives of himself and sets an example for us. It is in God’s nature to give, and as his creations
we share that nature. Since we share in that nature, think about how this could change your
relationships. With your family, with your colleagues, with your church, with the world around
you. Shifting from a paradigm of receiving to giving can be a freeing experience. It can help us to
look at the world differently, which is exactly what God has been longing for all along.