Do You Giggle While You Give?

Giving is a gift of opportunity from God. Do you giggle while you give? I’m not talking about the times you’ve engineered a white elephant gag gift for a relative at a holiday party. Though the reaction when your very proper maiden aunt opens a box explosively stuffed with ostrich feather-topped spring toys could be virally hilarious, it isn’t what I mean at all.

Sun-struck Lily

Paul didn’t mean that either. When he wrote “God loves a cheerful giver,” he used the Greek word hilaron which speaks of a positive attitude, and has become the root word for hilarious in English.

Do you giggle while you give? Think about it. Giving doesn’t carry the intimidating weight of responsibility that teaching or preaching does. Giving doesn’t even have to mean money. One small boy gave the lunch his mother packed to Jesus. Oholiab gave time and skills when he got involved in constructing the Tabernacle. The Levites gave dedication, strength, and organization while doing their tasks in the Tabernacle.

Yes, God instituted the tithe, but that provided food for the priests and Levites, who were too busy with the duties of the Tabernacle and temple to farm. It was also a test of trust. Would God’s people be willing to give a tenth of what human effort produced, relinquish depending on themselves, and anticipate the unlimited blessings God would make available?

Giving is about participation. It should astound us into belly laughs that the eternal, all powerful God wants to include us in what he plans. So how should we give? We get to choose! What, how much, when, and to whom. Such freedom not only eases others’ needs and prompts them to return the favor, it also causes praises to rise to God. Do you giggle while you give?

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