Abundance

In church today, Father Tom spoke of abundance.  How when we give, even if we feel we have little to spare, it makes what we do have feel abundant.  In his words, "...if all we see is scarcity then we cannot see with the divine vision of abundance."  It reminded me of the time after my divorce when money was so tight.  I was making barely above minimum wage at the time, and even with child support, we were stretched very thin.  But somehow, we never felt deprived.  Yes, there were things we wanted that we couldn't afford, but they were just things.  And at the end of the day, we were happy.  We still did pretty much everything we wanted - just in a less expensive way.  Pizza on Friday night was frozen pizza; vacation was paid for with money from tax returns, and it was a long weekend instead of a week; we bought all of our clothes and household needs from Kmart, and for a special treat I would let the kids pick out a candy bar or a pack of gum at the checkout.
Things got better money-wise.  I got a better paying job, and eventually I met Jeff and our two salaries combined eased the financial strain immensely.  But honestly, when I look back at those days, what I remember is being happy.  The money situation just wasn't a factor in that.  After the kids were grown, I asked them how they felt about it.  They both said they never felt deprived.  They felt they had a great childhood.  We had plenty to eat, a roof over our heads, a yearly vacation, and we always found something fun, but cheap, to do on the weekends.  Great times!  And abundance.  It dawned on me with Father Tom's words that we never dwelled on the scarcity of what we had.  We saw abundance.  God was with us always.  And in those lean times, He showed Himself so clearly to us.  We gave to each other - in the fun and laughter we shared, in the love for each other, in the warmth and security of our home.  And in that giving we found abundance.  There is no scarcity when you have love, and God is love.  Indeed, His blessings were - and still are - abundant.