It was Tuesday morning, and as usual Millie was reading her Bible with her second cup of coffee when the phone rang.
“Hello! Millie? Hello? Millie, are you there? Talk louder! I can’t hear you!”
Millie held the phone away from her ear, and shouted as loud as she could, “Good morning, Hazel!”
Hazel was one of those older persons who had become quite deaf in her later years, and she just assumed that when she became deaf, that everyone else had become deaf too. So, she always spoke very loudly.
“Hello! Millie? I can’t hear you, but I guess you must be there! I’ve just heard some horrible news! This is Hazel, Millie! And I just heard that the bank is foreclosing on my next-door neighbors! They’re going to lose their house, Millie! And they just had a new baby, and they have two other children as well! I don’t know what they’re going to do! Hello! Millie, did you hear me? I don’t think you’re there, so I’m just going to hang up and I’ll call you later with some horrible news I just heard!”
The phone went dead before Millie could get a word in. So, she just sat there thinking about what Hazel had just told her. Hazel’s house was next door to Millie’s, and the family Hazel had talked about was just one more door down the street. Millie had never gotten to know them. She had waved to the children a few times when they were out playing. It had only been a few weeks ago when she had first met the mother. Millie had dropped off a small gift for the new baby, but the mother could only talk for a moment. Still, even though she really didn’t know the family, they seemed very nice, and she thought it was just terrible that they soon would have no place to live.
Finally, Millie said a prayer for the family and went back to her Bible. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” she read from Matthew’s gospel. Then she read Jesus’ answer. “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” She prayed again, finished her coffee, and put her Bible down.
Millie’s bridge club was coming the next day. So, she busied herself with tidying up the house and preparing snacks for the bridge club. The bad news she had just heard was pushed to the back of her mind.
The next morning, as she lay in that netherworld between sleeping and waking, an idea came into Millie’s mind. Maybe her nest egg could help save the family two doors down!
When the bridge club came, Millie could hardly wait to hear what they would say about her idea.
The other ladies all came in the door chattering about the poor family next to Hazel that was going to lose their home. Bad news travels fast. Millie waited until they were into their second cup of hazelnut coffee and second helpings of the little tea cakes she had prepared. Then, while Roberta began dealing the next hand, Millie shared her idea.
“I was thinking,” she began. “I think it is just awful that such a nice family gets put out on the street, all because of an insignificant thing like money.”
“Money is only insignificant,” Roberta said as she finished dealing the hand, “if you already have some. But if you don’t have any; then money becomes very significant.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking!” Millie agreed. “I have a little nest egg. It’s not a lot of money, but it might help those poor people keep their home. That little nest egg is pretty insignificant to someone who is eighty-four years old like me. But it could be significant to that poor family, especially if it helps them to keep their home.”
“Whoa!” Joanne said to Millie. “Did I hear you right? Are you thinking about giving away your nest egg?”
“You heard me right. After all what do I need a nest egg for? I’m too decrepit to travel, too worn out for a boy-friend, and too religious to take up some expensive vice.”
“But what if you want to buy something?” Joanne said.
“Are you kidding?” Millie answered. “My closets are full of stuff I’ve bought. My basement is full of stuff. My attic is full of stuff. My garage is full of stuff. I even have stuff jammed under my bed. I’m trying to give away all the stuff I’ve bought over the years, not buy more!”
“Shouldn’t you keep your nest egg in case you have a health problem?” Roberta asked.
“Excuse me,” Millie insisted, “where have you been the forty-five years? I have nothing but health problems. But I also have Medicare and health insurance. What one doesn’t pay the other does. And my pension and my husband’s social security check cover the small stuff.”
“But what if a doctor tells you that you need some expensive operation that is not covered by your health insurance or Medicare?” Roberta continued.
“Then I tell that doctor that he can keep his expensive operation,” Millie answered. “The fact is I know more people in heaven than I do here now. And I’m ready to join them anytime. This world is vastly overrated anyway. Our Lord has something a whole lot better waiting for us.”
“Well, I have to agree with that,” Roberta said.
“And if you die now,” Joanne added, “then you don’t have to worry about getting rid of all the stuff you collected over your lifetime. You leave it to your kids to do it!” she said laughing. “That’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it!” She laughed some more.
“That brings up another point,” Roberta said. “If you give away your nest egg, what will you leave to your children?”
“She can leave them all the stuff that she hasn’t given away yet!” Joanne answered, laughing all the more now.
“I’m being serious, Joanne. Millie will want to leave something for her children to remember her by.”
“Roberta,” Millie said, “I think my kids paid more for their big screen TVs with their fancy sound systems than I have in my nest egg. My money won’t mean a thing to them. Besides, I want my kids to remember me for my love, not my money.”
Hazel had finally finished arranging the cards in her hand by this time, and she loudly asked, “Whose turn is it to make the opening bid?”
Joanne laid her cards on the table, and put her hands up to her mouth, using them like a megaphone, she said, “Millie is thinking of giving her nest egg to the family next door to you!”
“Did you say, ‘best wig?’” Hazel asked.
“No!” Joanne shouted even louder, “I said, ‘nest egg!’ Millie wants to give her nest egg to the family next door to you!”
“Oh yes,” Hazel shouted back, “nest eggs are very important! Everyone should hang on to theirs very tightly!”
They all shook their heads, and Roberta made the opening bid.
The next day Millie sat down with her second cup of coffee and her Bible. She turned again to the same scripture she had read two days earlier. She read the part about the two greatest commandments very carefully. When she finished, she laid her Bible down, slipped on her jacket, found her purse, and went out the front door heading to the church.
Millie was determined to hear the pastor’s response to her idea. She told him about the family that was losing their home, and the idea she had about helping them. She explained to him that she thought the idea might have come from God, since it came to her a lot like a dream. She also quoted what Jesus had said was the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Pastor,” Millie continued to explain, “I checked this morning and I have $7,714 in my nest egg. I have no use for that money, and my neighbors need help. It seems to me that if I am going to love my neighbors as I love myself, then I should give that money to them. Maybe it will help them. Maybe not. But it seems like the loving thing to do.
“Millie,” the pastor began, “I’ve always known you to be a very generous and loving person, and this idea is certainly very, very generous and loving. It reminds me a little of the widow who gave her last mite to the Temple treasury. Jesus said that her gift was much greater than all the others who had given much larger sums.”
“The difference is,” Millie added, “that widow gave the last of what she had. I still have my home, and a steady income. I don’t need anything.”
“You’re right, of course,” the pastor agreed. “And I really do love your idea. It’s the most loving idea I’ve heard for a long while. But to be fair, I have to ask you what you will do if you have an emergency come along, and you no longer have a nest egg? For example, what would you do if you have to replace your furnace or put a new roof on your house? You couldn’t afford to do that on your income, could you?”
Millie thought about it for a minute, and said, “I guess I would just have to rely on God to find a neighbor to help me out with a gift of money. But right now I feel like God has tapped me on the shoulder to help out my neighbors. I have money. They don’t. They need it. I don’t.”
“Hmmm,” was the best response the pastor could muster. Then he said, “Millie, let me ask you this. Do you know anything about this family? It could be they were living in a life-style where just got themselves over-extended. You know, they could have run up their credit cards, bought too many fancy things, lived in a house that was beyond their means to afford.”
“Are you telling me that I should not give this family my nest egg if they made some financial mistakes?” Millie asked.
“No, I’m just saying you need to be careful. I mean there are no guarantees that if you give your nest egg to this family this year, that next year they won’t be in the same fix all over again.”
“Pastor, I’m eighty-four years old, and if there is anything that I have learned in those years it is that there are no guarantees about anything in this world. The only thing I know for sure is that this is one way to love my neighbor the same as I love myself.”
She got up to leave, and then turned back to the pastor. “Do you mind if I ask you just two more questions? Then I’ll stop pestering you. I promise.”
Millie, you are not pestering me. In fact you’ve made my whole week! This is just a great thing that you are thinking about doing, and I am thrilled to be able to hear you talking about such a generous and loving gesture. It makes my pastor’s heart very happy.”
“Well, at least I’ve done some good today,” Millie admitted. “But I want to know, and please answer me with complete honesty. If you were in my shoes, would you do this?”
The pastor thought a long while before he answered. Then he said, “Honestly, Millie, I don’t think I would do it. I really think you might need that nest egg for some unforeseen emergency in the future. If I were you, I don’t think I would give it away.”
“Okay, last question,” Millie said “Do you think God is telling me to do this?”
“Wow, Millie, you really know how to put a pastor on the spot! I would love to be able to answer that question for you, but I really can’t. There is just no way that I can know that. You are the only one who can know that for sure. I wish I could give you a better answer.”
“Well, thank you, pastor. You’ve been a big help to me.”
Millie started toward the door, and the pastor called after her, “So, does that mean that you are going to keep your nest egg”
“Oh no. I’m going to give it to them,” Millie answered. “You know, second greatest commandment stuff.”
Millie walked out the door, and headed straight for the neighbors who lived two doors down from her house. She knocked on their door, and was happy to see the mother open it. Millie handed her a check for $7,714, and said, “I think God wants me to give this to you.”
The woman looked at the check, and said, “What is this for?”
“I don’t know,” Millie answered. “I hope maybe it might help you keep your house.”
The woman looked at the check again, and started jumping up and down. “Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Tom, come here! Hurry! Come her right now! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!”
Her husband came running, expecting that something terrible must have happened. “What wrong?” he stammered.
“It’s the answer to our prayers! Tom, this wonderful woman… our neighbor, right? Just two doors down, if I remember right. Tom, she just gave us a check for $7,714! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!”
He looked at his wife, tears started running down both their cheeks. Millie saw their tears, and started crying too. Then, having completed her mission, she turned and started for her home.
“How did you know?” the husband called after her.
She turned back to the couple. “Know what?” Millie asked.
“How did you know the exact amount that we needed to save our house?”
“I didn’t,” she admitted, “but God did.”
Millie again turned and started walking home. Now she knew for sure. The exact amount in her nest egg was the same amount that the couple still needed to save their house. No one but God could pull that off. So she knew for sure, that God had given her the idea that had sounded so wrong to everybody else. Her heart was full. God had spoken to her, and she had obeyed his command. She had loved her neighbors as much as she loved herself.
Just as Millie was about to go in her door, she heard the couple calling out to her. “Thank you! Thank you! We’re going to the bank right now!” the woman said.
“When we get back, we want you to join us for a celebration, please,” the man said.
“I’d be glad to,” Millie answered.
“Thank you!” they called to her again and again.
“Don’t thank me,” Millie said. “It was God’s idea.”
Questions for Meditation, Discussion or Preaching
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
