My Gift and Her Gift

READ: LUKE 7:47; JOHN 15:9-15; 1 JOHN 4:19

I don’t know if anyone knows how difficult life is for me, living at the edge of our village. I lost my family long ago and all I can do is spend each day looking for some argoine—the substance we must eat to survive on this planet.

I wake up early in the morning and my body aches. I spent all day yesterday walking around, trying to find the fuel I need to live a little longer. Most of the people around me have families; they help each other find what they need to survive.

I open the door of my shelter and my eyes widen. There, on the ground, is the glowing red substance that is our food. Who would leave this here? I pull the argoine apart and devour it. Today will be easier. I can look for argoine for tomorrow, but what I have eaten is enough for today.

Over the next few days, I wake to a gift each morning. Confused, I decide to stay up through the night and watch to see who is bringing this to me.

Late in the night, I hear footsteps. I stand. “Who is it? Speak.”

“It is me.” The voice is old. “I know what it is like to be alone, to search alone, and I have brought argoine for you.”

I can barely see through the darkness, but I spot my nearest neighbor, a member of the village who has been here since before my family arrived on this planet. She struggles to walk.

“Why would you bring it to me?” I ask. “It’s difficult for you even to look for it.”

“It is difficult, yes,” she says. “But I have been sustained many days. I bring the extra to care for you.”

“You could save it so you don’t have to go out each day,” I say. “Why would you give all that you have to me?”

“Someone once gave their all for me,” she says. “That Someone completely changed my life. All I can do now is give to someone else.” • Emily Acker

• Has someone ever surprised you by giving sacrificially? What was that like?

• We love because Jesus first loved us (1 John 4:19), and because we know how much we’ve been forgiven (Luke 7:47). If you know Jesus, how has the gift that you received from Him—His life given for you—affected the way you live? (For more about knowing Jesus, see our “Know Jesus” page.)

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 (NIV)