Simple Gifts

A blue Tootsie Roll bank adorns the top of Gavin’s dresser and a yellow one decorates Maddie’s. Sharing space with a jewelry box and ceramic rabbits, photo frames and a mini chalk board, these banks, nonetheless, hold a place of honor. Coins are added clink by determined clink. Eagle eyes spot a stray penny in the grocery store parking lot. Clink. Mama awards an unexpected dime for a job well done. Clink. A tooth wiggles loose and loose change is found under a pillow. Clink. Papa digs in his pocket to retrieve cents and smiles. Clink. And the “picture sales” set up on the kitchen table, opportunities for Daddy to admire crayon masterpieces? Clink. Each coin is treasured.

Last winter both children saved their coins until banks were brimming, until nickels stuffed through the slot could not utter an echo. Then, oh happy day, it was time to dump the banks out onto the floor, sort the coins into piles and begin the chants of, “One, two, three…” and “Five, ten, fifteen…” Their grins lit the room and instead of money, we then counted days until the day of the special shopping trip to spend their savings.

Then the coin clinking and accumulating began again—more searching and saving, planning and grinning. But this time, the banks still rattled with space when my two spilled their change and began to count. Fists full, they approached my husband and me. Gavin was appointed spokesman. “Here,” he said. “We want to give this to a child who doesn’t have anything to eat.” I started to question, ask if they were sure, but my husband stopped me with a single head shake.

Fighting tears, I gathered four months worth of coins and dropped them into an envelope. Deed done, Maddie lifted the now-empty banks back into their places and within minutes, the notes of “pretend” sang out. Not realizing the impact of their simple act of generosity, two children had returned to the land of make-believe.

But I am ever changed.

As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins."I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."   Luke 21: 1-4 NIV