It is nice to receive a gift but often is it not also difficult?   Who can be happy about receiving a gift without immediately asking, "What gift of equal value does the other expect from me?  What must I give in return?"  How differently a child responds by rejoicing over a gift!

Where there is true love it is given without counting the cost.  True love is given without calculating price or value.  In personal relationships we experience something of what the Bible teaches as the way of law or the way of grace, as life according to the letter or as life according to the Spirit.  Our conduct toward others is used here as symbol which makes it possible for us "to grasp" what it means for us to receive from God "by grace", "free of charge".

- Let people pass by in your mind who from childhood have given you gifts which have  enriched you in various ways without any expectations from you.  Ponder this...  "What  would I be without these people who You have given me as gifts through grace?"...

- Let people pass by in your mind who in recent days without your deserving have  enriched you, have commended you, have simply accepted you in some way.  Ponder  this...  "Lord, I thank you.  Through them you give to me through grace."...

- Recall to mind the innumerable services that unknown people perform daily so you can  live a healthy life.  Ponder this...  I live in dependence on many people...Through  them all you (God) give to me through grace. ...

- Isaiah 55:1-3 ("Buy without money")