Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and occasionally a half-dollar. That’s what you’d find on the nightstand beside his bed. He’d empty his pockets each evening and leave the contents there for he knew eventually they’d come to visit—they being his grandchildren. Over the years they learned to visit his nightstand as soon as they arrived. He could have put all that spare change in a coin bank or even stored it away in a savings account. But he didn’t. He delighted in leaving it there for the little ones, the precious guests in his home.
A similar mindset is what is expressed in Leviticus 23 when it comes to bringing in “the harvest of your land” (v. 22). God, via Moses, told the people something quite counterintuitive: not to “reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest” (v. 22). Essentially, He said, “Leave a little behind.” Such instruction held the value of reminding the people who was behind the harvest in the first place (God), as well as a means of His provision, via His people, for those of little account who were strangers in the land.
Such thinking is definitely not the norm in our world. But it’s exactly the kind of mindset to characterize the grateful sons and daughters of God. He delights in a generous heart. And that often comes through you and me.