When I heard that the son of the leader of my Sunday group was going to have a big celebration, my mind went into action.

I decided it would be nice to collect money from the eight guys in my Sunday group to give as a gift to the son of the leader of the group. I asked each guy to please give $20 toward that gift. I figured that eight guys, plus me, makes nine. Nine times $20 equals $180. But I decided to place two hundred dollar bills in the card that I would make. I decided that I could give $40 myself because I really enjoy what the leader has to say each week.

Okay. For one thing, I half expected someone would ask me how much of a gift I was giving. If they knew, they might figure out that they would have to offer a few dollars more to make the $200 gift a shared one. As I said, it doesn’t matter because I don’t mind giving an extra $20.

I decided to make a gift card on my computer. I chose a theme of interest to me that I thought might be of interest to the leader of the group, too. I half expected that someone from my group would ask to see the card. If they saw the card, they might not think the subject I chose was a good one.

Why did I take on this chore? Because it was not a chore for me. In fact, I had a great time planning the card and placing the $200 gift inside it.

If I enjoyed this “operation” so much, then (1) why did I even think about others chipping in more cash, and (2) why did I even think about how others might react to the message in the card that I had created for the occasion?

These might be the answers to above questions:

(1) Even though others were asked to donate only $20, I would like others to be sensitive enough to ask if that was enough money for the gift I had chosen. Someone could have asked, ”Did I (or we) give enough money for the gift you selected?”

(2) Even though I had chosen the message for the card, I would like others to be sensitive enough, or curious enough, to ask to see the card. Perhaps I was even looking for reinforcement for the card’s message that I had created. Would I do this kind of thing all over again? Yes. Am I nuts? Yes, too.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at Robertebsen@hotmail.com