True generosity comes from joy

Agonizing memories of deep embarrassment can’t be good for cardiac health. Merely recalling certain panic-stricken experiences can immediately spike blood pressure, elevate the pulse, and flush the face. When, in our first year of marriage, my wife and I passed on to another just-married couple a wedding gift we had received, we were present for the unwrapping. It was a lovely picnic basket, one of two identical ones we had been given. Unbeknownst to us, the “To Peter and Susan” gift tag was left in the bottom of the basket from our wedding. Our relationship with that couple changed forever that day.

Regifting can be a risky practice with all types of gifts except one—the kind we receive from God. When we share gifts or blessings that have been given to us by God, there’s no end to the joy extended.

Besides time, money, or talent, there are other things of God that can be regifted. Bethany and Hannah Goralski are twin 25-year-old sisters who each donated a kidney to separate strangers earlier this year. Their dad died of kidney failure last year before they had the chance to donate to him. To honor his remarkable generosity with others, they elected to give life to someone else. Their decision triggered a chain reaction of anonymous kidney donations from friends of the people who benefited from their gift, and then from friends of others who had new life thanks to the succession of donors. In the end, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, helped coordinate ten donors and ten recipients, with potentially even more to come.