A lesson in give and take -love in the community

School kids were asked to collect 1.5 million pennies in order to teach them the magnitude of those affected by the Holocaust. A janitor in their school stole their pennies in the midst of their project.

When word got out, the community responded so generously that they reached their goal in four days.

One of the students in the article (click above) stated that it was a lesson in give and take. Something bad happens and you're given something else back.

I've had this lesson in my life- in abundance! Due to my disability, I've lost things. Yet when I needed a ramp, a friend generously offered to build it for me. When my kitchen needed to be renovated, friends, some of whom were parishioners, donated their labor, time and money. When my tennis wheelchair wore out, people in the tennis community provided me with a new one.

I've also experienced this give and take in other ways. I need physical help to manage and, yet, through finding that it's been a bridge for me to learn many lessons about myself and others. I've learned about true friendship, about what it means to stick for the long haul rather than just a sprint, about gratitude and humility. I don't believe I would have learned as much about give and take any other way.

Mostly I've learned about love - the kind of love Christ showed on earth.

When we see things happen like generosity of spirit and in acts, our hearts and spirits are renewed. Yet we have the choice to live like this every day of our lives. Christ showed us how. It wasn't in the huge miracles, although I'm sure I would have liked to have been there to see them. It was in the daily acts of love given within community.

I have seen this type of love over and over again in my life . I have experienced so much of it since my accident that I often think I would not trade what happened for anything in the world.

Although I wouldn't encourage anyone to pray for bad things to happen, it is comforting and reassuring to know that when they do, those who practice God's love here on earth can heal the wounds.