James I. McCord, then president emeritus of Princeton University Theological School, told the story of a man who commented that he was never coming back to a particular church because all they ever talked about in that church was give, give, give. Concluded Dr. McCord: I cannot think of a better definition of Christianity than that: give, give, give.

I am convinced that unless you learn to give you can never learn to be fully human. Let me ask you this. If there was a dog walking down the street, healthy coat, obviously in good shape, and he had a bone in his mouth, and that dog passed a flee bitten mutt that was near starvation, do you think that the healthy dog would stop and drop his bone in front of the sick dog? Oh, no. He would clinch his bone that much tighter in his teeth as he passed by. That is the nature of animals. Only man knows how to be a giver.

God is a giver. He gave us life itself. And his ultimate gift was that of his son. What more cherished, more precious, more intimate gift could one give than that of his only child? If we want to achieve God likeness, we must be givers too. God does not ask us to renounce our possessions. He does ask us to renounce our spirit of possessiveness. He does not ask us to give up necessitates, but he does ask us to share out of our abundance. The deepest joy in life is not by taking all that we can get, but by sharing all that we have got.