If charity begins at home, where does it end? A man in a wheelchair approached me at the grocery store, with two small children in tow. He asked me for cash to buy food. I told him I did not have any cash. He explained to me that I could get cash back off my debit card. When I was checking out, he reappeared. A woman who worked there started to shoe him away. I told her he needed help. She said, “We all need help.” I gave him help.
Joseph took care of his own family first. Settling them in the best part of the district of Rameses, Joseph fed his family, ensuring that they would find material provision. But others were hungry, too. From everywhere, people decimated by the famine came to Joseph and bought grain. When they ran out of money, he allowed them to exchange their livestock for food. This helped them make it for another year.
But what about when their animals were gone? Fulfilling Pharaoh’s dream and Joseph’s interpretation, skinny cows were devouring fat cows as the famine exhausted the resources provided by the abundance of the first seven years. Joseph kept people from all around the area alive with the food he had stored up.
Charity begins at home. Paul wrote that anyone who did not provide for their own family was worse than an infidel (1 Timothy 5:8). But what about the ones who are not our relatives? My friend Maribel was right: we all need help. If we can help others we should. But what if we run out? God never does. Do good to all people, starting with your own family.
