giving is the greater. It brings most joy.

This is the very essence of life, this giving creating spirit. It is
everywhere, in lower life and higher and highest, wherever the touch of
God has come. The sun gives itself out in life and light and warmth. And
out to greet it comes a bit of itself--the fine form and sweet fragrance
of the rose, the tender blade of grass, the unfolding green of the leaf,
the wealth of the soil, the song of the bird and the grateful answer of
all nature.

The hen sits long patient days on her nest. And forth comes cheeping
life in her own image, answering the call of her mothering spirit. The
mother-bird in the nest in the crotch of the tree gives her life day by
day in brooding love. And her wee nestling offspring, in her own image,
answers with glad increase of strength and growth.

Father and mother of our human kind give of their very life that new
life may come. And under the overshadowing touch of an unseen Presence
comes a new life made in their image, and in His who broods unseen over
all three. And over the life wrecked by sin broods the Spirit of God.
And out through the doorway of an opening will, comes a new creature of
winsome life in the very image of that brooding Spirit of God.

This is the holy commonplace of all life. It is the touch of God. It is
everywhere about us, and beneath and above. The father-mother Spirit of
God broods over all our common life. And when things go wrong, He broods
a bit closer and tenderer. He meets every need of the life He has
created. And He meets it in the same way, by giving Himself.

And there's always the response. The fragrance of the rose answers the