Rich Toward God

Today, I received an e-mail with pictures from Tonya Hunt with HFHC, referenced in this devotional about the lovely Cana,  from February 10, 2010.

I like getting e-mails and I get quite a few. Over the years, I have accumulated a number of e-mail addresses and now it comes to me, including comments on this site, in five different locations. Much of it is junk and a considerable amount at school only marginally applies to me. This past Saturday, I received my favorite e-mail in months, maybe years. Interestingly, it was also the shortest. It simply read:
This is Cana. I had a garage sale and made about $85.00 for the water bottle.
You might remember Cana from an entry on December 18 in regards to a tie she bought for me at Christmas. Cana, a WCS second grader, has a huge heart. She makes reference in her note to the bank bottles we give to each of our students to build orphanages in Honduras. Due to the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, we are splitting the money this year with Hope For Haiti's Children, a Christian mission group which I was blessed to work with six years ago. Cana was not content to only put pennies in her bottle, which is all we ask our kids and teachers to do. Entirely on her own, Cana planned a garage sale with all the proceeds to go into that now, to me, almost sacred bottle. Her mom, Rachel, one of our teachers, told me that the whole project was Cana's: the conception of the idea, the planning, much of the donated goods, and the setting up, which she did the night before. Cana rose before dawn on Saturday in her excitement to bless those she will never meet. I got an inkling of her joy when I read the time stamp on her e-mail to me; 12:31 PM or only scant minutes after she had finished. If Cana could only bottle that joy, she could change the world. Wait a minute- she already is.

All my Bible classes took tests today. On both the sophomore and eighth grade exams were questions pertaining to the Parable of the Rich Fool as told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. In this story, a man was rude by interrupting the Master as He was teaching. The stranger demanded that Jesus tell his brother to divide the inheritance with him. Jesus asked the man who appointed Him the executor of the estate, warning against greed with a well-known parable about a man obsessed with his possessions and destined to die that very night. The farmer in the story had more than he could ever use but left the poor....and God... out of his plans. The Savior concludes the powerful teaching in Luke, chapter twelve and verse 21:

"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." 
We discussed that last phrase as we reviewed for our test today. I am not sure if I can give an accurate word definition of rich toward God in the sense Jesus intended. Sometimes pictures override the dictionary and give us a clearer meaning of a word or phrase. Bible commentaries are terrific and can explain many things but a snapshot of one second of a life can sometimes do the work of a thousand pages of small type and big words. Cana most certainly cannot quote the last section of Luke 12:21 but I am certain of this tonight: she explained it better than I ever will be able to.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment."
Tony Robbins

Here is a link for Hope For Haiti's Children:    https://www.hopeforhaitischildren.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlOKfr6XU5AIV0xitBh3E7QeqEAAYASAAEgKLZPD_BwE

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1 
E-mail me at shawley@westburychristian.org