Sharing Our Blessings
Sharing Our Blessings
In May 2025, wealthy businessman Robert Hale Jr. addressed 1,200 university graduates. He told them, “These trying times have heightened the need for sharing, caring, and giving. [My wife and I] want to give you two gifts: The first is our gift to you, the second is the gift of giving.” The graduates were unsure what to make of his confusing words until each received two envelopes: one with a $500 gift and another with $500 they were instructed to share with someone in need.
According to Forbes, Hale is currently worth $5.8 billion. This means the amount he spent on gifts for the graduates and the money he gave them to share with others represented just .00002% of his net worth. Hale was certainly generous, but his $1.2 million gift, though impressive, represented a different level of giving than it would for those of us of more modest means.
However, merely examining his donation to the graduates in terms of dollars and cents misses the point of his gift. He attempted to help the graduates realize the importance of helping others, even if they were not wealthy.
I read about Hale’s generosity in the June 5, 2025, Our Daily Bread devotional, which observed this about first-century Christians: “Believers in Jesus in ancient Macedonia gave out of their poverty so the needs of believers in Jerusalem could be met.” Paul said of the Macedonians, “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” (2 Corinthians 8:2, NIV)
Hale’s experience reminds me of a moment in Jesus’ life. “Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.’” (Mark 12:41-44, NLT)
Jesus’ point is that larger gifts do not automatically please God more than small ones. According to a Bible commentary I consulted, her gift was between a fraction of a penny and a few cents. Her generous heart is what pleased God, not the size of her donation.
The point is not that we must give all we have to please God, but that Jesus recognized her sacrificial gift, and her generosity pleased him immensely. Whether we have a little or a lot, are we willing to part with some of it? When we share our blessings with open hands, it pleases God.