Lucy Saw Clearly: Give and It Will Be Give to You

Lucy was a young girl who gave all she had to Jesus and so she has lived forever in the mind of the church. On the short, cold days just before Christmas, Christians still remember this girl whose name means “Light.”

On the darkest days, Lucy’s example is light.

Jesus was always saying something beautiful:

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, ² and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. ³ So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; ⁴ for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God,^[a] but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

This has been a very good year. A few people, one family in particular, made a new school possible: The Saint Constantine School. Every week I pray for these good people and I also pray for Lucy. When the school was announced, little Lucy took some of her birthday money and then raised more funds. By the time she was done, she had put together almost thirty dollars. Hers was the first gift we received and so, for that and many other reasons, one of the founding houses of our school is named for Saint Lucy. Last week, we celebrated Saint Lucy Day and somehow I knew that as Jesus keeps score, her gift still matters. It will always matter, like Della’s gift of her hair and Jim’s sacrifice of his watch. 

O. Henry understood Jesus:

The magi, as you know, were wise men–wonderfully wise men–who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

Lucy gave all she had and we hope to give to her a good school. We are built on her compassion and the gifts of so many great people, but Lucy was first.

Thank you, Lucy.  Thank you, all our magi.