“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6:38 NLT)

It was a beautiful Summer’s day yet I was pulling into a nearly empty elementary school parking lot.  I was taking my children to the first day of Energy Express, a Summer reading program that gave college age kids a job working with elementary school children.  Still, my young daughter didn’t seem too enthused about it.  She was moody and sullen and not too happy about spending part of her Summer vacation back at school.  That changed by the end of the day, though.  She came home happy with a joyous light in her eyes.  She talked about all the fun activities, games, and crafts they had done that day and how much she liked her teacher.  She showed me her new books with a smile and we reread them together.

It was another Summer’s day and another elementary school parking lot.  I was there to pick up my daughter after work.  She was in college now and had taken a job as one of the teachers at Energy Express.  I waited patiently while the laughing children ran out of the school to get on their buses to head home.  My daughter walked out behind them smiling peacefully.  Just then one of her students, a young boy with very curly brown hair turned and gave her a goodbye hug.  I smiled when I saw it and we discussed her day on the drive home.  I was so proud of her.  She had taken all of the learning, laughter, and love that her Energy Express teachers had given her as a child and now passed it on to a new generation of children.  I wondered whom they would pass it on to as well.  One thing I was sure of, it would never end.

The truth is that if any one brings beauty, love, learning, or goodness to our world, it lives on. It lives on in our minds.  It lives on in our souls.  It lives on in our lives.  It lives on in Heaven’s heart and God’s smile.  Share all the love you can then!  Do all the good you can!  Create all the wisdom and beauty you can!  Because it will live on!

By: Joseph J. Mazzella