$1.17 Love

Less than 18 hours before my wedding, as the clock was in serious countdown mode, my fiancé (now husband) Eric and I had to drop off a rental car at the airport and pick up our getaway car and a few other things from my grandparent’s house.

Rushing, rushing, rushing (because getting married is no joke in terms of a timeline) my Aunt offered to pick us up from the airport and bring us to my grandparent’s house for the things we needed to pick up.

With my Aunt was her darling daughter, my cousin. Rachel was the flowergirl in my wedding. Rachel has a rare love for me. As her oldest cousin, she is very taken with all things pertaining to me. As I write, her hand drawn artwork decorates my computer station.

Climbing into my Aunt’s car, I nestled next to my little flowergirl and smiled big. I asked her if she was excited about my wedding in the morning and she squealed, “YES.YES.YES!” She was undoubtedly thrilled.

That was when she extended her hand and told me she had a present for me. I was instructed to close my eyes and place my hands out in front of her.

Following her lead, I did as I was told and opened my eyes to find $1.17 in my hands.

One dollar and seventeen cents, in case you missed that.

I couldn’t contain my laughter as I looked at her sweet face. Rachel had just given me all she had been saving up.

I told her I loved her gift to me but thought with the busyness of the wedding, it might be safer for her to take it and buy something for herself. “That,” I said, “would make me even happier!”

What she said next still has me laughing.

“Thank you, Kristen,” her little five year old voice giggled out, “because I’ve been saving this to buy a car.”

Can you get any more precious?

What astounds me more is that her little heart handed me, in her eyes, the car she had been saving up for. To her $1.17 was more than enough to buy whatever she wanted. And she gave it to me.

I wonder today if we are as willing to part with all “we’ve been saving up”? I’m not talking about money here; I’m talking about our time, our talents, our areas of surplus.

Are we willing to hand all we have over to the King of Creation even when it is something we may not necessarily want to part with? How about when it doesn’t even seem like much?

I love the story in John 6 – the one with the bread and fish. We find Jesus here teaching to a hungry crowd. He turns to his disciples and asks them where they can buy bread for the hungry people and he is met with Philip answering, “We don’t have enough money to feed all of these people.”

Andrew notices a little boy has five loaves of bread and two fish but says aloud, “that’s a drop in a bucket for a crowd like this.”

Jesus takes the five and two and FEEDS THE CROWD. He takes all the little boy has, even though to many it didn’t seem like much, and feeds an entire field filled with people.

It is verses 12 and 13 that speak to my heart tonight,

“When the people had eaten their fill, Jesus said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.”

Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish, feeds the multitude and has food to spare. He has twelve large baskets of leftovers!

Whether we have much or only a handful, Christ is more than capable of taking our offering and feeding the crowds with it. Let us willingly hand over all we have to Him.

Take your $1.17 today and place it in His hands. Let Him bless our “haves” to the point of overflow in the lives of those around us.

I want to be like Rachel giving what I have with joy simply because I love.

I love Him. He can have all my hands can hold.

You can read more of Kristen's writing at her devotional blog Exemplify.