Charity

You know

There are some things that are good for us that we have to learn are true because they are so hard to understand.

For instance, why would it be good for us to give away what we have to someone else?

If we want what we have got, how can it make sense to give it away so we don't have it any more?

To understand the way that works, we have to know where the things we want all come from.

Just like us, and just like everything, they come from God the Maker of everything.

God gives us everything we have,

and can just as easily take everything back again.

When people think that they have made themselves rich,

they have forgotten where their riches have come from.

Of course, when we are born, we don't know what it means to be rich.

We would die if we were left to feed ourselves,

let alone find clothes to keep us warm and comfortable.

Some animals don't need any parents to look after them when they are born.

But people are born helpless and need to be fed.

It is only when they get older that they think they do it for themselves.

But babies soon grow to want more than food and warmth.

They want things that please their senses.

Toys that do surprising things,

or make interesting sounds,

or please their eyes with pretty colours or flashing lights.

They want things that feel nice, or smell good.

Then, as they grow up, they forget such things are toys,

even though they still want them for the same reasons.

They still want them because they like them,

but soon start to think that they really need them.

And they call the things that they collect for themselves riches.

And they exchange things with each other by swapping them,

or they exchange different things and kinds of work by using money.

And because they sometimes make a lot of effort to get the things they want, they quickly forget where their riches truly come from,

and start to think that they have earned them for themselves.

They stop thanking God for what they have been given,

and think that they only have what they deserve.

But then if God takes back all of their riches and they lose what they have they don't think that is also something they deserve.

They need to learn that what they get in life is not what they deserve but what they need.

It is only in the Afterlife,

when all the things we have done in our lives are put into the scales that weigh the good against the bad

and we finally get what we deserve.

And charity weighs heavy on the good side of the scales.

So in the end we can be sure to get the reward from giving what we have to those who have less than ourselves.

Giving more than money.