Size and Numbers Don’t Seem to Matter to God

A very small pink miniature rose from my garden

Good Morning, God!

I brought this rose in from my miniature garden a few days ago and I love looking at it! It’s so small — yet just perfect. It is even fragrant. Often I look at it and smile. It makes me think of the example Deborah Tannen gave about how differently the genders categorize gifts,

As I recall, God, she said that the typical male in giving a gift categorizes it by size, number, and value. So a dozen roses is a BIGGER gift than one rose. But the typical female instead sees or “counts” the ACT of giving. A gift of a dozen roses, is ONE gift. And the gift of one rose, is ONE gift.

I tried to explain this to my husband — the idea that the true value in a gift lies in the relationship it represents. Kit being a Scot was taken with the idea that ONE rose would do as well as 12. Smile. But, the stores sell roses by the dozen and so I have yet to get the gift of ONE rose. But, I am a typical woman, God. For me one rose IS one gift — just as a dozen roses would be ONE gift.

I feel, God, as if You are more like a woman than a man — when it comes to our giving You gifts. I’ve been thinking about how Oskar Schindler saved hundreds of Jews in World War II — and how the Ten Boom family in Holland saved only a few. But I think YOU “counted” both people as having given You the same gift.

In the Talmud it says: whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world. Help us, God, to save lives — even in small ways — even just one.

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Posted in a matter of scale, gifts and giftings, Giving, Help me to see, Venturing out of the shallows?

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