"Them that has, gits"

I was shopping in a well-known chain that deals in groceries and housewares just before our Canadian Thanksgiving. Upon checking out, I was offered a free ham because I had spent over a certain amount. Taken aback, I said. “Sure”, [after all who would turn down a free ham??] but as I drove home I started to wonder what I would do with it. We no longer ate ham because of the salt content in it - and anyway it was far too big for only 2 people even if we did! And in any case, why did they offer me the ham? With what I spent, if I had wanted a ham for the holiday meal coming up, I would have bought one. While I eventually found a home for the ham where it was appreciated, I had plenty of time to think about this scenario. I am sure that there were plenty of people shopping in that store, plenty of people in the community, a number of organizations, who would have been very thankful for a free ham. So why was it offered to someone who obviously didn’t need it?

I enjoy playing mainly solitaire card games on my ‘toys’. However the rewards of extra turns, etc. in the games I play aren’t given to someone struggling at the lowest level, but rather to those who have succeeded in mastering the game. Once again, they are given to the one who doesn’t need them. This seems to be a theme in our culture.

"Them that has, gits” was mentioned in a Boston (MA) Record anecdote in 1885. Two women were chatting, and one said that the Biblical Sarah was left a lot of money. The other woman declared, “The Bible never said a truer thing than ‘them that has gits!’” In 'Ain't We Got Fun' a 1921 song performed among others by Doris Day and Peggy Lee , we hear the lyrics 'the rich get rich and the poor get poorer' When we read in Matthew 13:12, ‘For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’ is this is biblical reference referred to above. It certainly could be understood in this way. Whatever the verse was that prompted these statements, it has permeated out culture, so much so that it now seems to be the norm.

AND IT MAKES NO SENSE! I didn’t NEED the ham! My family didn’t NEED the ham! But there were other people out there who DID need the ham. Why wasn’t the store using its facilities to get those hams where they were needed? Most importantly what can I do to make sure there is a different result next time, that the ‘hams’ go where they are needed. I also know that there are those out there who will say I’m an idealist and this will never happen. But it will surely never happen if nothing is said or done!!

Now read the same verse as above, but from The Message Bible this time.

“Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears.” [The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language was created and translated by Eugene H. Peterson and published in segments from 1993 to 2002. It is an idiomatic translation of the original languages of the Bible.] It seems according to this translation anyway, that the riches we are going to receive are those of insight and understanding, both badly needed in this world today. So the question for us all is “How ready are our hearts to receive them?”

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