Dear one,
In the past several days, “true gifts meet true needs” is a line much in my mind. Now, if memory serves me, I believe that these words were penned by Emerson, but I’ve not been able to identify that attribution.
At any rate, if you will allow my thoughts to meander, some time ago I learned that the German word, “gift,” can mean “poison,” “venom,” or “virus.” Since I am not a philologist, I cannot assert with any certainty, but I have wondered: Is it possible that the German word, “gift,” when it came into the English world found its meaning significantly altered?
Of course, mine is clearly a speculative question, but it has brought to mind the expression: “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Presumably, here the rationale concerns gratitude: when given a gift, simply and gratefully receive it for what it is: most likely beneficial and undeserved. However, regarding gifts and horses, I’m also reminded of the Trojan Horse: Did not the denizens of Troy believe they had been given a gift—a monumental gift signaling victory? Surely they did, and yet that gift was their undoing.
One further, analogous thought: within the medical world, it seems that chemotherapy is essentially subjecting the body, or a portion thereof, to poison or a fast-acting toxin. If this is true, and I do not doubt it, I also do not doubt that many have received and experienced chemotherapy as a gift—truly a poisonous gift.
Given these meanderings, one further thought: For many of us, might these coronavirus days be a gift? In raising this question, I do not want to be callous or insensitive; nor do I want to don the garb of Pollyanna or Orphan Annie. I know that approximately 40% of the American workforce wonders about the next paycheck, and whether or not they might still have employment as spring becomes summer. I also know that the virus has meant death.
Nonetheless, I wonder: Might these days afford some of us the opportunity to think and/or to reevaluate? For what are we continually striving? Why are we so dogged by fatigue? That next event, meeting, or outing: how important is it—really? Likewise, is life and liberty merely “the pursuit of happiness”?
However we answer these questions, of this I remain confident:
“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).
Gifted,
Stan