Exchanges

Our 2^nd daughter Debbie has always been petite, and when her younger sister was born, she was 6 years old and pint-sized. Now Debbie was very unhappy with the newcomer and made her displeasure known very loudly by slamming doors when the baby was sleeping, and generally being a brat. So to appease this child of mine, when Abi received a gift of baby stuff that was tucked into a humongous baby bottle that was also a ‘piggy’ bank, I took out all the baby stuff, put a few silver dirhams (UAE currency) in, and gave it to her – a gift from the baby. Without exaggeration, the bottle and Debbie were the same height!

But from that day on, peace reigned in our home, and our sweet child made it her life’s mission to fill that bottle with as many coins as she could find, beg and borrow. In a few months, she had about a quarter of the bottle filled, and one day when her uncle George (whom she loves dearly) came over from Bahrain, he said “Debbie, how much money do you have in the bottle. Let’s count it.” So the two of them tossed all the coins onto the carpet and I could see Debbie’s eyes glistening (it was like Aladdin’s treasure trove to her), as they counted them all the coins. It was just shy of 50 dirhams – but due to the various denominations, there were about a 100+ coins in there.

“I’ll make you a deal, Debbie,” said George. “You give me all your coins, and I’ll give you one hundred dirhams. I’ll double your money.”

“Deal, **Georgiepapa”, said Debbie. So the trade was settled. The coins all collected into a bag which Debbie clutched tightly, and George took out a brand new 100 dirham note. The money exchanged hands and we noticed that while Debbie was quick to take the 100 dirham note, she just didn’t want to let go of her bag of coins. But when everyone oohed and aahed about her wonderful business acumen, she was happy, and all seemed calm and well. Until that evening… when Debbie picked up her bottle and saw just the one note inside. Suddenly, all pandemonium broke loose. She threw herself and the bottle onto the floor and wailed loudly. “I want my coins back now, Georgiepapa. You took ALL of my ‘hunded’ and gave me ONE!! I WANT MY COINS BACK!!”

I was reminded of this incident a few days ago, while trying to read my Bible. The day before that, someone dear to me said something very hurtful. And suddenly all my insecurities and anxieties came to the forefront. The hurt soon turned to anger and then self-pity, while I spent a whole chunk of my day thinking up of smart answers I should have spat out at that time. And I woke up the next day unhappy. Unhappy with the person, and unhappy with myself because I did not respond with a smart comeback. But as I sat there with my Bible that morning, I remembered six-year-old Debbie and the deal gone wrong! 🙂 I too had made an exchange a long time ago. It was my insecurities and fears for the joy of the Lord!

Friends, reality is that life is filled with people and situations I call “joy zappers”. And over the years, unfortunately, I have given up so many days of my life to them! You see, every time I allow “joy zappers” to steal my joy, I am empowering their influence in my life and undermining the power of God and His Word.

Exactly like my six-year-old who didn’t understand anything beyond her perception of the situation, every time I wake up joyless, I am clutching onto a bag of small change coins – when my God has promised me blessing after blessing and grace upon grace in exchange. It’s all in His Word!

For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift]. John 1:16

*Georgiepapa is what all our girls call their uncle.