As a small child I had a candy drawer in my room where I would put all of my candy. The only problem is that I would never eat it. I just wanted to hoard it away in my room for a time when I would want/need candy. Just in case. Pretty soon my siblings caught on and started sneaking into my room when I wasn’t there and helping themselves to whatever they wanted/needed. I didn’t find this out until years later, of course. Tons and tons of delicious confectionaries simply wasting away in an old dresser drawer.

Here are some things I consider myself gifted at:

Roadtrip playlists.

Taking random ingredients leftover in the fridge and making something edible

Writing. Editing papers.

Taking one look at the people I love and immediately knowing something is wrong.

Great skills, right? I’m sure your list is even more impressive.

Now imagine I took my ability to find the perfect song for our upcoming road trip and kept it “private” on my Spotify account. Of if I noticed that you were upset, and didn’t say anything or even give you a nice note. I put it in the proverbial “candy drawer,” to waste away. You’d be upset, I think. Or at least confused.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:8

We start to believe that our trees are planted in the drought. We think that if we give away our talents, gifts, and expertise we will find no more left. We start limiting our root supply. There are different seasons, and yes, sometimes your leaves are a bit wilt-y. But if you have a tree full of delicious and beautiful fruit, God never intended for it to rot.

My Grandma’s house always seemed like a place of abundance to me. It still feels that way. In the summer we’d pick her berry bushes for hours and hours in the hot August sun and there would still be more left. Our buckets would spill over with more than enough berries for pies, crumbles, jams, and plain-old snacking. If you still had any energy left you could climb the ladder and pick pears from the top of the fruit tree. As if that wasn’t enough the rose garden covered the entire white fence in front of the barn. And inside the house? Not one, but two fridges! One fridge with an endless supply of ice cream and Pepsi, and another stocked with leftovers and ingredients for dinner. and you almost never leave her house empty handed.

God’s stores are even better stocked. He never runs out.

and he wants you to share. Not to compete, or edge out, or put down. To give and give abundantly. God loves us cheerful giver, not a frazzled, worn out, tree without a root supply. So give what you have to offer, which may not be what is expected, but it is needed.