February 20, 2008

For my birthday recently, I got several cards in the mail, but one of them stood out as special, as it does every year.

Each year, just a day or two before my birthday, I get a card from Granny. But you see, she isn't actually my grandmother, but rather she is Laura's grandmother. I guess that would make her my grandmother-in-law, if there is such a thing.

Despite the fact of actual blood relation, and despite the fact that we haven't seen each other all that much over the years since we are around 500 miles away, she has sent me a birthday card every year that Laura and I have been married. And always inside the card there is something special, a $1 bill.

I remember being a kid and receiving birthday cards from various great aunts and uncles, and opening the card to find a dollar or two tucked inside. That was a big deal back then, and I remember the excitement of receiving that money in the mail. But for whatever reason, those cards stopped coming long ago.

While Laura and I were dating, she would tell me each year about getting a birthday card and a dollar from her grandmother. Like clockwork, it would arrive right around her birthday. But I was pleasantly surprised on my first birthday after our wedding, when there was a card in the mailbox from South Carolina. And inside was a dollar, and the card was signed, "Love, Granny".

Now you may laugh, and it does tend to bring a chuckle, or at least a smile, to those that I tell, but I am quite proud of that dollar that I get every year. It means that I am part of the family, just like all the grandchildren who were born into the family.

But also, Granny never has been all that wealthy. She came from a family of farmers, and married a farmer. They always had enough, but not an abundance. Still, the dollar each year reminds me of the Biblical example of the woman who gave her last two coins. The point of that story is that the amount you give doesn't matter as much as the motivation behind your giving.

Over the years now, I have received 15 of those birthday cards with a dollar inside each one. Things have changed a little bit with time. Granny no longer addresses the cards herself. And lately her signature gets a little more shaky each year. But that is understandable, as she will celebrate her 94th birthday in a few weeks.

I think I still have most all of the cards she has sent me, with the dollar still inside. I can't bring myself to take the dollar out and spend it. Because the dollar in the card is more special than whatever I might spend it on.

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. - Proverbs 11:25

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