The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

of the transformed Scrooge: He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS 93 to the windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk—that anything—could give him so much happiness. After his transformation, Scrooge walks through the streets of London, freely Scrooge is giddy with distributing his wealth to the delight. needy. He's giddy with delight. He, who only yesterday had scoffed at the idea of charity, now takes his greatest pleasure in giving. On the story's final page, Dickens says of Scrooge: Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them.... His own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.10 What was the source of Scrooge's transformation? Gaining an eternal perspective. Through supernatural intervention, Scrooge was allowed to see his past, present, and still-changeable future through the eyes of eternity. Let's ask God for the same insight into our lives. Ebenezer Scrooge leaped for joy on the streets of London because he'd discovered the life-giving antidote to the materialism that had poisoned his soul. Scrooge learned the Treasure Principle—the secret of joyful giving.