Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.   2 Corinthians 9:7

While watching a college baseball game, my young son retrieved a foul ball. If it had been a professional game, he would have been allowed to keep the ball, but at this level fans are expected to return baseballs. I wished that he could keep it because I thought it would be a big thrill for him. Then I saw how he enjoyed giving it back.  In reality, the young man who collected the ball was just the batboy or equipment manager. But to a five-year-old, he was a “real live ballplayer,” an athlete in uniform. He couldn’t have been more delighted and awestruck if she had been giving the ball back to Babe Ruth himself.

In a similar way we present gifts to God. Just as the baseball wasn’t really my sonr’s, what we give to God isn’t really ours. At our best, we are only being obedient – doing our duty – with the gifts first given to us, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Luke: “When you have done everything you were told to do, … say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty'” (Luke 17:10). But wouldn’t it be great if we could return our gifts of money and service to God with the same sense of joy and wonder that my daughter had in returning the baseball? It’s not the gift that’s special but the One receiving it.

Dear God, help us to give joyfully. Amen.