The Giver Unseen

Like all grad school students who struggle to make ends meet my time in seminary pushed me to my financial limits. Days in Austin, Texas are not often like what we are experiencing outside today in Decatur, Alabama, but for large stretches of the year the heat exceeds what mortal human beings can easily endure. I attempted to be as stingy as I could, still sometimes my electricity bill was larger than I wanted it to be.

During my first couple of semesters I learned how to cook random dishes using an app called “Cook by Number,” which would create a recipe for whatever I had on hand or whatever was on sale that week. I even became what some people call a “freegan” meaning I would eat any food that was free or left-over from seminary events. There were days when I would pray for a staff member to bring in breakfast tacos to share with the work study students. One time that prayer was even answered.

Over the course of three years I applied for countless scholarships, which helped. But, even after a Dave Ramsay financial peace university course I could not make all my ends meet. Air-conditioning, food, and seminary rent are not cheap.

Right about the time when I was getting worried that I was going to be just short on my electricity bill, that I would have to call home to figure out what I would do to get everything paid off for my first semester I went to check my mail. In my postage box on the second floor of the apartment building was a small, white envelope with no return address merely my name and seminary address written in plain black ink. Intrigued, I used my finger as a makeshift letter opener. Marvelously the package contained a couple $20 bills, no note, just cash. I looked around as if I was being filmed for some hidden camera show, but alone I stood in the breezeway full of gratitude.

Certainly, that was not the end of the financial challenges of seminary, but on a few other occasions some kind soul mailed a white envelope with a little extra cash in it. I never found out who did this, but I am grateful for this anonymous giver. Over the years in school I tried to repay that kindness in the seminary community by preparing meals for friends or filling the laundry machines with quarters for the next student, but those envelopes and the giver unseen I will never forget. 

Today we celebrate another anonymous giver who became less obscure through the years. Happy St. Nicholas Day! Nicholas was a bishop in Myra during the Fourth Century. While we remember many fabulous and fantastic stories of this giant of the Christian Faith—think: punching a heretic in the face, saving some children who were about to be pickled, and healing a withered hand—perhaps most notably though we think of him for one story. 

Three daughters lived in his town. They were unmarried and had a poor father, so none of them would have been able to get married for they could not afford the dowries. Women without husbands in those days had to turn to horrible methods to make ends meet, so this situation was not just dire because they were without love. Their lives would have turned awful if they could not afford a bride price. On three consecutive nights Nicholas walked by their home and threw a sack of gold through their open window. This saved the women from a life of shame and allowed them to get married. 

Nicholas was the forerunner of our own tradition of Santa Claus, but more than the modern adaptation St. Nicholas showed a rare affinity for anonymously giving. While I would love to know who sent me those white envelopes during seminary, something marvelous happened when there was no return address. I began to treat everyone around me as though they might be the generous giver. To give so freely without need for credit does something not just for the giver and receiver, but for a whole community.

What Nicholas and other anonymous givers show us is the epitome of gracious stewardship. To give so freely these followers of Christ have to be secure in their trust and belief in God’s abundance. So sure and confident in their own giftedness from God they are that they are willing to drop gold through a window, send money to a seminarian, or secretly take care of a need within a community. These stories are not just supposed to be far out of reach for us. No, each of us is called to grow deeper in our Faith in God, such that we trust God fully. And, when we do we will begin to recognize everything is gift, which frees us up to give freely ourselves.

In this season when we wonder what to get everyone and struggle to put together a list of presents for ourselves I invite us to look at the life of Nicholas and other anonymous givers. What is a need you know of in this community, within the schools nearby, within Decatur, or elsewhere? How might you give freely like Nicholas? We are all so gifted by God who provides for our every need, like Nicholas let us give without need for credit, and as we do we will grow closer to Christ who gave all of himself to unite us to God!