Creative Giving

 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:38 

What do you have to give?  You may have more than you realize.  One of the joys of the hobby-skills I've honed over the years is that they can be shared, and thus can be a source of giving in themselves.  For quite some time now, I've shared my crochet hobby with the homeless teens at the drop-in center where I volunteer.   

 But this week, I expanded this particular style of gift-giving into a new realm.  This week, instead of me going to the big old house that is their center of operations, some of the girls and their case managers took a field trip up to see me--to the berry farm I patronize.

 Whether they knew nothing about berry-picking and learned it in the moment...

 ...or had been berry picking as a child, taken by a grandmother, the outing was memorable.

 If one didn't quite have the skills for finding the best berries--hidden and tucked under the leaves, then another came alongside and helped fill the little green quart boxes...

 ...until everyone's berry box was filled.  Then we went back to my house for banana bread and a session of jam-making.  Again, grandma-related comments floated over the bubbling pan of jam in the works.

In the end, each girl left with a quart of fresh berries and a jar of her own jam--not the typical fare for a young gal who often has to receive her food from the lot of packaged dried goods at the local mission.  Here she had the opportunity to put her hands to the work on a beautiful breezy day in a sunny field of strawberries.  Here she had the opportunity to remember special days with her grandmother instead of remembering the stranger she was afraid of on the street the night before.  Here she got to make a sweet treat that she could take home to her toddler-baby and see his delight as he ate it, spread all sticky-red on his slice of bread.

You may have dollars to give, and God knows they appreciate those dollars.  But if you have a day to give--a day like this one--it blesses you back, gives into your bosom and runs over.  I can promise you that!