Thought for the Day, 26 January 2008

The Rev. Joel Edwards

So what would you think if someone repaid an old debt by giving you 2 ripe bananas?

Well that's precisely what happened to the Queen when she visited a hospital in Norfolk and met up with 69 year old Elizabeth Hyde. It turns out that in 1943 the Queen Mother visited a children's hospital and presented the then 4 year old Elizabeth with a banana. So 65 years later she returned the complement with a posthumous 'thank you'. Two bananas for her Majesty.

Given the Royal assets I suppose you could say that handing out bananas to a four year old was a bit on the stingy side.

And why on earth should such a small token become such a big deal?

Well I guess 'bigness' is in the eye of the beholder! For a little girl, the tiny gift became a giant memory.

It probably happens a thousand times every day. Little parcels of kindness passed out without fanfare or ceremony easily go unnoticed. But they have the ability to make a massive difference to people on the receiving end. And tiny morsels of kindness have a way of taking on titanic proportions when they are handed on to those who are poor, marginalised or vulnerable.

Small things add up to a lot if you don't have much to start with.

And in the interaction something else takes place. For in giving the human spirit taps into something else. In the rendezvous between giving and receiving we become more human. Or to put it another way, more like God wants us to be.

As the Croatian theologian, Miroslav Volf reminds us 'We are at our human best when we give and forgive'.

Which is why Jesus said, 'Whatever you do in my name for the least of these' will be rewarded. And even in the opulence of 21 century Britain we have a lot of the least of these.

God gives because he must. There is no other way of bridging the chasm between his infinite love and our finite needs. He gives when we know it and when we don't; when we say 'thank you' and even when we won't.

Giving is godly.

And anyway small things aren't always what they seem. In 1943 a banana wasn't just monkey food and it was far from being stingy, for in the 1940's a banana was a luxury item. As Mrs Hyde told us, she had never even seen one before!

So if you're thinking of doing something small for someone else today, don't resist. It may turn out to be far more appealing than you think.