Learning about Offerings

A couple weeks ago, I took Jeremy to dinner at Red Robins for a special one-on-one. There's a race car video game he likes to play at the restaurant. When I paid the bill, I purposely got some change so he could play the game. Out of the blue, Jeremy asks "How do you give something to God?" I told him that there are a lot of ways, but that usually people give money to the church and the people at the church use the money to help other people, because that's what God wants. When he saw the change from the dinner bill, he said "Daddy, I want to give this to God." So, I gave him the change and told him he could give it at church tomorrow. I just assumed that he could just keep it in his pocket and put it into the collection plates. But Jeremy had no prior experience from which to assume this protocol. So later that night, I saw him writing on an envelope. He had placed the change in the envelope and wrote on the front:

Fo GOd

lOVe, JErEMy

When I saw this, I was really struck by it. Surely, the gift of this five year old was more precious to God than the some of the checks written on Sunday.