What Can You Give?

My colleagues came back from a recent churchwide Mennonite convention, and one of them placed a collection of small white crocheted crosses in our break room. The crosses were in little plastic bags with decorative cards taped on that read “Handmade in Homestead, Florida.”

Knowing that D. J. places her crocheted crosses in her church offering basket as her offering to God adds an even richer dimension to this simple cross.

My curiosity was immediately piqued. Having been to 22 such Mennonite conventions over the years, I’ve always felt the planned business conducted there wasn’t as important as the little conversations and serendipities that happened in the exhibit hall, on city streets, in coffee shops, and over long lunch conversations. The handmade crosses looked like a story, and when I tracked it down, I was not disappointed.

I called Homestead Mennonite Church; current pastor Rick Lee said a woman named D. J. from the church had given him a hundred of the little crosses to take to the Mennonite Church USA convention to “share a blessing.” She sells them for $2 each, from which she likely takes the income and buys more crochet thread. Pastor Lee said further that D. J. frequently gives three or four new crocheted crosses in the offering basket at his church rather than money. “Sort of the ‘widow’s mite’” Lee said in an aside, because he’s not sure she even has the proverbial “nickel and dime to rub together.” He added that she’s been single all her life and just kept living at home, eventually becoming caretaker for her father until he died. Lee thinks she may have run a small fabric, notions, or craft shop at some point.
“This is her offering to the Lord,” Lee pointed out. D. J. has given him a batch of crosses whenever he travels to larger meetings where her crosses can be shared to “bless others.” She tells him to “distribute these where you are going.” D. J. loves to hear any stories that travel back to her.

Many of her crosses are made of beautiful, brilliant colors, which were enjoyed by congregants in a Chicago church where Pastor Lee had been invited to bring a message. Twenty-five years earlier, Lee and his wife were laypeople involved in planting Living Water, a Mennonite congregation in a multiethnic port-of-entry neighborhood in Chicago. Lee said church members were thrilled with the crosses in so many pretty colors, and he used D. J.’s gift to talk about the gifts we have and the gifts we give, pointing out that giving of ourselves means more than just giving from one’s wages.

Physical objects like a cross are meaningful to many in terms of being a reminder of one’s faith. Knowing that D. J. places her crosses in her church offering basket as her offering to God adds an even richer dimension to this simple cross.

Pastor Lee shared another illustration of an unusual gift: he was led to give doorknobs—placing them in the offering basket—for a clothing ministry of Living Water that badly needed a bathroom door that didn’t inadvertently lock itself. That helps me think of my husband’s church lawn mowing and my own Sunday school teaching, childcare in the nursery, and making food for families with a new baby or serious illness—all of these are tangible, hands-on blessings we give to God and others.

Kim Hitchcock and her daughter Lila are happy recipients of one of D. J.’s handmade crosses.

What can I give that blesses another person? What do we mean by bless? It’s a phrase I do use frequently, but I don’t know that I ever stopped to parse it or even look it up. I often say “Bless you” when someone does something nice for me and sign off with “Blessings,” in cards and emails.

Officially—and the first meaning in many dictionaries—would be something along the lines of consecrating something, or to “sanctify by a religious rite; make or pronounce holy.” That’s not usually what I’m thinking of when I casually say “Bless you.” I do think of it in religious terms, though, asking God to actually share “divine favor” or goodwill or warm feelings. Among Catholics, an official blessing by the Pope is a pretty big deal. On the negative side, it has come to be a euphemism for cussing someone out, as in “I really blessed him out!”

I want to share D. J.’s crosses with readers for as long as they last. I have sent a donation to D. J.’s church, and offer them free to anyone who wants one. Don’t be shy!

In turn, I hope you spend some time reflecting on what you can share with others that will bless them. Perhaps you don’t really have two coins to rub together either. But there is something every one of us can give liberally, many times a day: smiles, kind words, thank-yous, I love yous, special deeds.

I do hope you will write if you would like one of these special crosses from D. J. in Homestead, Florida, to pass on to someone else or to place in a gift or special card. And I’ll say, “Bless you!”

For a free white hand-crocheted cross, send your request to me at MelodieD@MennoMedia.org. Or write to Another Way, 1251 Virginia Ave., Harrisonburg, VA 22802; as long as supplies last.