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READ: LUKE 7:47; JOHN 15:9-15; 1 JOHN 4:19\n\n\n\nI don\u2019t know if anyone knows how difficult life is for me, living at the edge of our village. I lost my family long ago and all I can do is spend each day looking for some argoine\u2014the substance we must eat to survive on this planet.\n\n\n\nI wake up early in the morning and my body aches. I spent all day yesterday walking around, trying to find the fuel I need to live a little longer. Most of the people around me have families; they help each other find what they need to survive.\n\n\n\nI open the door of my shelter and my eyes widen. There, on the ground, is the glowing red substance that is our food. Who would leave this here? I pull the argoine apart and devour it. Today will be easier. I can look for argoine for tomorrow, but what I have eaten is enough for today.\n\n\n\nOver the next few days, I wake to a gift each morning. Confused, I decide to stay up through the night and watch to see who is bringing this to me.\n\n\n\nLate in the night, I hear footsteps. I stand. \u201cWho is it? Speak.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cIt is me.\u201d The voice is old. \u201cI know what it is like to be alone, to search alone, and I have brought argoine for you.\u201d\n\n\n\nI can barely see through the darkness, but I spot my nearest neighbor, a member of the village who has been here since before my family arrived on this planet. She struggles to walk.\n\n\n\n\u201cWhy would you bring it to me?\u201d I ask. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for you even to look for it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cIt is difficult, yes,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I have been sustained many days. I bring the extra to care for you.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cYou could save it so you don\u2019t have to go out each day,\u201d I say. \u201cWhy would you give all that you have to me?\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cSomeone once gave their all for me,\u201d she says. \u201cThat Someone completely changed my life. All I can do now is give to someone else.\u201d \u2022 Emily Acker\n\n\n\n\u2022 Has someone ever surprised you by giving sacrificially? What was that like?\n\n\n\n\u2022 We love because Jesus first loved us (1 John 4:19), and because we know how much we\u2019ve been forgiven (Luke 7:47). If you know Jesus, how has the gift that you received from Him\u2014His life given for you\u2014affected the way you live? (For more about knowing Jesus, see our \u201cKnow Jesus\u201d page.)\n\n\n\nHe who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all\u2014how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 (NIV)