Monday night we three Brooks' ate dinner at Zaxby's in Johnson City. I really enjoy their wings and fingers. After much soul-searching, Ellie finally opted for the grilled cheese kids meal as opposed to the chicken finger kids meal. I, on the other hand, decided on the Wings and Things platter. It had a nice mixture of wings and fingers along with a heaping helping of french fries. Paige went with the Chicken Zalad (yes, that's right, they don't just have salads at Zaxby's they have Zalads. And be careful not to throw your Zalad bowl away or else they may dispatch the zoldiers to come and arrezt you.)Anyway, after retrieving the food, we all sat down and started the pre-feast arranging of the food. Mom had her zalad with her bleu cheeze zalad drezzing and she was ready. Much to Ellie's dismay, she only had 1/2 a sandwich rather than the whole thing which was quite troubling for her as she can easily eat a whole one. Along with the 1/2 a sandwich (or was it a zandwich,) she had roughly 9 french fries. My food was virtually falling over the sides of my platter. I had the requisite chicken items and fries PLUS a few carrot and celery stalks. Bonus food! To allay Ellie's fears of hunger, I shared my bonus food with her, as well as my ranch dip. Zaxby's also has a handy dandy ketchup pump you can use to fill those small little paper cups which makes for a nice fry accompaniment. I gallantly pumped a handful of cups and returned to the table with the spoils of my condiment pilgrimage to the delight of all.
Finally we started eating. As I waded through a few wings, I noticed that Ellie was watching my well-practiced eating routine-- strip a wing, toss it to the side, dunk a fry, bite, double-dip, bite, take a swig of drink, and repeat. After a few minutes of this, Ellie takes one of her remaining few fries, dunks it in ketchup and hands it across the table to me. I said, "Honey, thank you, but I have a whole plate full of fries and you only have a few. I don't need one."
"I know, Daddy, but I just want you to have one of mine," she responded with a huge smile.
Of course I quickly took it and swallowed it whole.
In the moment, I was really proud of her selflessness, as I know how, quite often, 4-year-olds tend to be the opposite. Now as I think about it, I am almost overwhelmed by the simple, yet profound lesson of giving demonstrated by Ellie's simple act. We serve a God who owns it all. By His very nature, God has need of nothing. The 50 cent theological word is aseity. God does not depend on anybody or anything to meet a need, He is self-sufficient. Yet He delights when His creation selflessly and joyfully gives unto Him. We are not to give to God because we think He needs it, or even because we think His word prescribes it. We are to simply give in response to the wonderful ways in which He has given to us.
Thank you, Ellie, for reminding Daddy of a very important lesson.
* Photo courtesy of Audra Livergood, Photographer Extraordinaire
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