By Missy Shearin
You cannot out give God. How many times have I heard that in my life? Yet, how many times has God has proven that principle over and over to me on such a personal level. One of those times is what my children like to call "The Strawberry Story."
I had left my career to become a full time Mom. We had bought some property and were trying to build a home, so it was a scary time to cut our income in half. In our attempt to be wise stewards we put ourselves on a tight budget. My extra free spending amounted to $4.00 a week just enough to treat myself to a cheeseburger, French fries, and a large chocolate shake at Burger King on Wednesdays before I bought the groceries. I am not a big shopper anyway, and with a new baby, there wasn't a lot of time to even spend money. The budget seemed do-able.
Until the first week we tried it.
I received a phone call from a prison ministry that I had signed up to "be on call" to help with their refreshments that they served after Bible study.
Mrs. Shearin, we noticed that you lived near Jean's Berry Patch, and we were wondering if you could supply us with a gallon of strawberries for the Women's Bible study this Wednesday.
"I'll be glad to," I said, not thinking about the budget.
That evening as I hauled a car seat with a new baby around the strawberry field, I remembered the budget. Tithing had been accounted for in our budget. Clothes, groceries, electricity, car, gas, but no line item for just plain old giving. "I could just put this item under 'Groceries' since it is food," I rationalized. "No" I concluded. "It's not for us. It is a gift for others. Maybe it won't cost so much."
As I painfully watched the lady at the stand weigh the strawberries, I almost winced when she announced, "That will be $8.00." Handing over the money I reviewed the cost to my life, No Burger King for two weeks. I know that doesn't sound like much, but at the time, it was a big deal to a new Mom who had just given up her once a week indulgence.
At home I washed those strawberries and miserly measured out my gallon so that I could have one small bowl left over for my own family to taste at our evening meal. "Lord," I prayed reluctantly, "please bless these strawberries. Let them be good to the ladies at the prison."
Two weeks went by, and I survived without Burger King. In fact, I forgot all about that little gift. Then one Wednesday as I returned from the grocery store, I saw a huge bowl wrapped up on my front steps. It was a bowl of strawberries from my neighbor; she was just being kind and wanted to share with me. "That was nice," I thought, as I brought them on into our home along with the groceries.
A few weeks later, I was returning home again on a Wednesday, and a five-gallon bucket of apples was on my doorstep. Another neighbor was sharing the produce from her orchard. Then a five-gallon bucket of pears came. Then twenty pounds of Concord grapes. I was beginning to notice a pattern.
So much fruit came that summer that I put up preserves, jams, froze fruit, and made "homemade baby food" (that my daughter never could eat!). The freezer and the cupboard were packed full!
As the years went by I grew closer with my neighbors, and I was also welcome in their gardens and orchards. But I never had another summer like that first one. I wondered why all that fruit that seemed to show up on Wednesdays, after my Burger King outing.
And then it hit me one day, two years later. The strawberries! God was showing me that summer that I could not out give Him. He who owns the strawberries on a thousand hills had taken my little offering, my reluctant offering, my "bless this if you can" kind of tiny sacrifice and had multiplied it beyond my wildest dreams. All this to teach this slow- learning daughter of His that you cannot out give the Father.
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord and, Almighty see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty. -Malachi 3:10-12