More from Linawati Santoso

Thank God for the Opportunity to Give

My sister loves gardening. Coincidentally, there was empty land on the second floor of our rented house. She planted pandanus, aloe vera, chilies, snake fruits, and many other plants. I often saw my sister making compost from bananas peels, eggshells, or leftover vegetable scraps. Every afternoon, I helped her water the plants. We were happy as we saw the plants growing well, especially the pandanus. 

As I have written in my devotional, in 2023 the house would no longer be rented out. The owner said that the house would be renovated. We had to move to a new rented house, and it was narrower. There was no place for gardening. “What about our plants?” my sister asked me in sadness.  She knew she could not bring the plants to our new rented house. “Give them to our neighbors,” I suggested. She agreed as I explained that in this time God might give us the opportunity to share.

First, we gave a pandanus to the neighbor whose house was in right of our house. She happily accepted it. “Thank you,” she said. She placed the plant in front of her house. Another woman was surprised to see pandanus in front of our neighbor’s house, and I overheard them talking about how she got it from me. I called this other woman and asked, “Do you want pandanus too?” She said yes, so I brought down a pandanus and gave it to her. “Thank you very much,” she said. The next day, my mother told her that we still had many plants that she could have if she wanted them, and she replied that she wanted them. She took several more pandanus, aloe vera, and chilies. She seemed very happy receiving all of them. She also told me that she had already given some to her neighbors.

We lost our plants, but we were happy. The word of Jesus was true, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. We thanked God for the opportunity to give to others.

Last September, another devotional of mine was published in The Upper Room. Again there was a reader who sent me a financial gift. I thanked her and thanked God. I shared the money with my mother, and she looked happy to receive it. This October, my sister and I were assigned to kids’ ministry, and we wanted to make souvenirs for children. We had most of the materials, but there were still materials we needed to buy. We used some of the money we were given to buy them. We were joyful as we imagined the happiness in children’s face as they accepted souvenirs that we had made.

We had been given to, and so we also want to give. As it says in Acts 20:35, we remembered Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (NIV).