The hand that gives ...

There seems to be an African proverb.

"The hand that gives is always higher than the hand that receives"

I'm not going to Africa.

First, as Christians, we believe that even when alms are strictly alms, they are given to God.

We meet God in the actual needs of the one asking.

For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in
[Matthew 25:35]

Not, "I was thirsty and you gave me to eat so I got even thirstier" ... food can dehydrate even more than alcohol, which the prefecture of Paris forgot last Friday.

Second, we believe and feel, as Western Christians, that someone who's offering sth is not a simple beggar.

If I offered music, you could give, but you would be receiving first.

Since I offer sth to read, you can give, but even if you give first, I am still giving and not just receiving.

Third. We agree I have no right to complain if you can't give all I need.

But I also hold, if you give more than I need on some item, and it hurts me because I'm not in the right mood to say no thanks politely or you don't give me the time to do so, or sleep privations make me too exhausted to renounce it, you are actually robbing from me.

I'll never be an African.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Visitation of the Virgin Mary to Elisabeth
2.VII.2026