GOD MEETS OUR NEEDS
El Señor Nos Cuida
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Saturday, March 30, 2019
Once a person starts collecting similar items, that person is seldom satisfied with the next one. [Photographer: James DeMers. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
Several years ago, my husband and I were the overnight guests of a woman that collected paperweights. She owned several hundred of them, and many were worth between $200 and $400 each. Some were whimsical, a few contained the images of famous leaders such as Winston Churchill, and others reflected historical sites from around the world. She lived in a high-rise condominium that was packed with other valuable items that included china and sterling silver, to name a few. I could hardly believe the wealth in her dwelling. As I stood at her window, looking at the city spread out several stories below, my mind leapt to the educational scholarships that she could have funded with the money she had spent on her possessions.
One thing was apparent to me: None of those paperweights or other expensive items had been enough. She always had to have another, and another. With all the things that she had to take care of, it occurred to me that she didn't own those objects; they owned her. She spent time as well as money caring for them.
That experience has influenced me so that I have found that it is better to live modestly than to live on a grander scale. Possessions often separate people rather than uniting them. Living modestly means that we reach out to each other. In doing so, we often supply each other's needs, as demonstrated in the photo below of one friend cutting the hair of another.
People that live simply often supply each others' needs. [Photographer: Elliott Nevills. Photo courtesy of Stockvault.com.]
I remember a similar instance from my youth in which a neighbor cut my mother's hair. While our neighbor worked on Mother's hair, the two ladies chatted so that it strengthened their friendship. Yes, Mother could have gone to a hair salon, but that Saturday afternoon brought them together for a specific purpose in a way that wouldn't have happened otherwise since both of them worked full time away from their homes. She was happy to cut Mother's hair because she remembered that Mother and I had once surprised her with the first birthday cake she had ever received.
People with little money and few resources tend to help each other in ways similar to those. Bartering is another manner in which needs are met and friendships are established. Friends exchange services, goods, or food and become better acquainted in the process. People may trade babysitting for yard work or cooking for home repair. Having fewer possessions brings friends together. In that respect, less becomes more.
Proverbs 11:24 describes something similar when it says, "One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." (NIV) A different translation states that same verse another way: "Sometimes you can become rich by being generous or poor by being greedy." (CEV)
"Giving" doesn't necessarily involve giving money. As the photo of the haircut illustrates, it can involve giving time, energy, food, talent, or other demonstrations of caring and friendship. When we meet the needs of others, God meets our needs in ways that we cannot imagine.
BIBLE VERSE FOR THIS POSTING
'Proverbs 11:24 — One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. (NIV)
Proverbios 11:24 — Hay quienes reparten, y les es añadido más; Y hay quienes retienen más de lo que es justo, pero vienen a pobreza. (Reina-Valera 1960)
This modern translation uses different words to express Proverbs 11:24, but it captures the same idea. [Photographer: DF Nature Awed.]
