Calcium: Generosity
Generosity Pays
HEADS: Today we are going to use a gardening principle to better understand a character-building principle. We will be making a comparison between calcium and generosity. So let’s first go out to the garden.
TAILS: Calcium is the kingpin ingredient in the garden. Without adequate amounts fine root hairs cannot proliferate to stimulate soil microbes and build humus, plants cannot utilize soil nutrients very well, and foliar fertilizers and microbial inoculants will have little benefit on the plants. And you can put on piles of calcium, but it won’t do any good if you don’t have some organic factors in place—humus and microbes.
Phil Nauta adds this from his book Building Soils Naturally, page 176:
“Calcium shortage needs to be improved before other nutrient ratios will be fixed. For example, adding sulfur in the form of gypsum or ammonium sulfate can bind with excess magnesium and leach it, but you need sufficient calcium for this to happen efficiently. Calcium is associated with nitrogen fixation and amino acid formation, so low calcium means the nitrogen cycle in the soil will also be less efficient and nitrogen will more easily leach.”
Everywhere we turn it seems calcium is needed! “Calcium,” Mr. Nauta says, “helps plant cells COMMUNICATE with each other by physically moving between cell membranes.”[Emphasis mine.]
HEADS: Can generosity be as necessary in the character? Absolutely! Generosity requires a willing giver and a needy recipient. It denotes nobility of mind because it evokes unselfishness, liberality, charitableness. The close affinity calcium has with soil microbes and delicate root hairs parallels the generous heart’s intimate association with those in need. It opens many doors of communication. Without generosity the soul actually STARVES.
“God so loved…that He gave.” John 3:16
