Giving and receiving
By Goldie Chong
Cristal with lemons galore
I drink lemon juice mixed in water every morning. I was down to three lemons, so I was careful to ration them. That night a friend visited and when he saw the lemons on our tree, he chirped happily, ‘’I plucked seven lemons from your tree’’. My heart sank. Our webmaster also uses lemons and every time we meet I always give him some. We were to meet up at the hospital the next morning, so I texted my grandson to get some from his neighbour and to bring them over to our house immediately. Unfortunately when it was time to leave he did not make it.
I was debating whether I should give my webmaster all the three I had. That meant I would have none left. I decided to do it. On the way to the hospital we stopped by to pick up some takeaway for lunch. On leaving the café we bumped into our sister-in-law and her husband carrying a box of – lemons! They were from their tree and they were giving them away. “This is a godsend!” I exclaimed. “we are just going to the hospital and we need lemons for our friend.’’
That evening at my orchestra rehearsal, one of the players brought a bag of lemons to give away. Nobody seemed interested, so I took some. Now I had lemons in abundance. But this is not the end of the story.
One day I was rummaging in a box in my kitchen where I keep my sack of rice. To my surprise, besides the rice was a big bag of lemons! I had forgotten that I had picked them from a cut down tree which was thrown on the rubbish heap waiting for the rubbish collection. They were still fresh when I cut a few to squeeze the juice to freeze in cubes – something I usually do when there is an abundance, so I can have lemon juice on hand at all times. I remembered my neighbour who asked me for lemons recently so now I had an over supply to share with her. But this is still not the end of the story.
We were taking a walk around the neighbourhood and saw a tree full of lemons. It was growing outside, away from the property. Lemons were strewn all over the ground. I told my neighbour about it. Now she can have an abundant supply.
What did I learn from this?
When I am willing to give my all, God is ‘’able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us…. to Him be glory….’’Eph 3:20
Truly God is no man’s debtor. I cannot forget that when God told Tek to give up his medical career to pastor a church, we asked not to be given a salary until we needed it. Today, 26 years later, we are still being supported by God’s resources which has proved to be more abundant than any doctor’s income. We have proved that God is no man’s debtor. I am sure the widow with the two mites, who gave all she had was, like us repaid a hundredfold in her lifetime and in the world to come eternal life. 
