The story of stewardship goes back to the beginning of the Bible when, high on a mountaintop, a father actually offered up his little boy. It is the first reliably recorded "pledge" in the Bible.

We moderns, however, have flinched so in horror at this barbaric episode, which God stopped in the nick of time, that we have been afraid to take another look; and we have missed the extraordinary valor and enviable devotion that went, this once, with stewardship. God never meant to let this man make such a mistake, but he could tell easily by that hard test there was no mistake about this man. He was all God’s. It was too early in the day of time for Abraham to understand God’s methods - how could he know the best way to give a son to God?

But his motive was pure. One has to know the pricelessn…