Re-Gifting

“Re-Gifting” is a euphemism, I reckon.  Taking a gift that you’ve received from one person, and then passing it on as a gift to another person.  (I highly recommend that you do not “re-gift” something back to the person who originally gave it to you.)  I suppose various communities and cultures have different standards as to the extent that re-gifting is appropriate.  Whether fruitcakes or trinkets of various sorts, the same object gets “gifted” again and again and again.

 

Last night, I realized something.  God is into re-gifting.  Not in the sense of passing on a gift received from elsewhere, but in the sense of giving the same gift again and again.

 

Take this computer on which I’m writing this entry, for instance.  It’s a really cool laptop.  Granted, it’s over a year old, so it’s not top of the line anymore, I’m sure.  But I really like it.  I enjoy working on it, and it serves me well.  It would have made sense for me to thank God for this laptop when I originally got it.  (I hope I did that.)  The provision of this laptop was a wonderful gift from God that I received over a year ago.  But that’s what hit me last night.  God didn’t just give me this laptop a year ago.  He re-gifts it to me every single morning.

 

Of course I assume that my laptop will be there eagerly waiting for me every morning, but that “ain’t necessarily so.”

 

The reality of this was driven home last night (a Tuesday).  Now, Monday evening had been our regular team meeting.  I remember being distracted during that team meeting by the sound of a whole bunch of sirens.  That’s unusual here in Cambodia, where emergency response systems aren’t what they could be.  I found out on Tuesday morning that there had been a serious fire on the north side of the city, and the report I read said that over 200 homes had been destroyed.  One young child was killed in the blaze.

 

Fast forward a bit to Tuesday evening.  Sopheaktra decided to go out with her sister and mom and niece to dinner (kind of a belated women’s day celebration), taking Davey Will with her, so I was at home waiting for my students to arrive for my evening class.  I heard a rather large commotion outside our house, and a short time later our doorbell rang.  I went to the door, and a young woman (probably a neighbor) told me to shut off our circuit breakers because a transformer down the street had blown.  I did that, then went outside to watch what was happening.  Sure enough, about a block down the street an electrical transformer was essentially “blowing up.”  It was sending out sparks as bright as a welder’s torch.  To my alarm, there were actually flames surrounding the transformer.  It was at least 100 yards away from my house, but I still realized the potential danger.  If those flames began to spread, the whole neighborhood could be at risk.  I was SO thankful that Sopheaktra and Davey Will were safely out of the area, and I called to tell them to stay away for the time being.  I mentally began making a list of the things I should try to collect from our house if we needed to evacuate.  (And, yes, the laptop was on the list!)  I knew, though, that I wouldn’t be able to get very much, and there was a viable possibility that we could lose most everything we owned if that fire began to rage out of control.

 

I was so thankful when the transformer stopped sparking, and someone was on a nearby roof with a fire extinguisher to put out the remaining flames.  Disaster averted.

 

The whole thing took less than half an hour.  But it was enough to make me realize what we could have lost, and I dropped to my knees in gratitude that God spared us the loss that might have been.  And that’s what made me understand that every morning I wake up with my wife and son nearby, with food to eat, with money to spend, with a laptop to use, etc. – every single morning all those things are new gifts from God.

 

I’m glad God is into re-gifting.