God's Generosity in Action: "A Prayer from the Heart"

Chris is praying for one friend along his road. He thinks that this is all he needs. Surely, one friend is enough? Our finite minds have a limit to our imagination.

But God knows what we need and He has decided that Chris needs 4 friends and they need to live next door! God is s-o-o-o generous and shows Himself to be so in my story.

God shows His generosity in so many places in the bible: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor 2:9). This is often spoken about in respect to Heaven…but I think it means here on Earth too! God has been so generous to me in my own life and I am sure that you can find His generosity in yours too! And I want children who listen to this story to hear how generous God is….generosity is very attractive!

My Experience of God’s Generosity

God’s generosity was first evident to me in my childhood when I experienced my parents generous love to us-their 3 children. Mum would save any money we had and spend it on clothes for us! She never put herself first. She didn’t have a lavish wardrobe. What a mother! Dad, also showed the generosity of his time to mum in their marriage. It was only after mum died that dad attended more study days to expand his knowledge as a GP. When I commented on this, he said that previously he didn’t want to go to too many study days ‘because of mum’. He literally wanted to make sure that she wasn’t on her own on a regular basis. I was shocked at his sacrifice, as he loved his medical work. What a gift he gave of himself to my mum! What a husband! Of course, there are many other ways that both my parents were generous – but these are just 2 of them.

I grew up and went to school and to university like many others- but through all that time I somehow didn’t make any long-lasting friendships. I didn’t really question it- I just couldn’t find a real and trustworthy connection with anyone! Then at 27 years of age, I started attending a Catholic Charismatic prayer group and I suddenly found I had lots of friends! This was God’s generosity for my social and emotional needs! These were my people! Here were people who were ‘all in’ for God. They were living life in a completely different, though more exciting, vein than I had ever experienced before! They were listening to God and obeying Him in all areas of their lives and He was directing them and protecting them. This, I realised, was what I wanted too! I found some really close friends through this particular group, some of whom are my dearest friends today.

Pointing Out God’s Generosity

Unless we intentionally show children the generosity of God, they will have less to be thankful for! Take snow for example! Just the beautiful and simple fact that the structure of each snowflake is unique! Why would God bother doing this? Surely, He could have just used a handful of designs? Who would know? To me it seems to be partly due to His amazing creativity …but also due to the fact that He won’t be outdone in His generosity! God is – still being God!

As God says to Job,

“Have you visited the place where snow is stored?” Job 38:22

Perhaps if Job could visit this storehouse – God would be able to show him the architecture of each flake and the care with which He has made each one unique. Today we have microscopes to see His Generosity. I think that the uniqueness of each flake is the secret of snow…and points us to God.